Isabela and Fernandina Island
With an invigorating sunrise at Roca Redonda, hundreds of sea birds surrounded the tip of this submerged volcano. Red-billed tropic birds, shearwaters, storm petrels, Nazca boobies swallow tailed-gulls and frigate birds had a “sushi” festival around the area. The upwelling currents at this area allowed us to have the pleasure on marine mammal observation. As we were having breakfast, a pod of graceful, streamlined-shape common dolphins appeared at the vicinity of the ship. The day couldn’t begin start any better!
After crossing the Equator, the dramatic landscape from a collapsed Volcano called Ecuador, let us understand the formation of the islands. Later in the morning we had the chance to explore geologically Punta Vicente Roca or locally known as “oreja de burro” (donkey’s ear). Here, we found the biggest marine iguanas we have seen so far! They were basking on the rocks accompanied by flightless cormorants, brown pelicans, blue-footed boobies, fur sea lions, sally-light foot crabs and Galápagos penguins. Suddenly and surprisingly, two large toothed dolphins, better known as Orcas, bow-rode our Zodiac. It was interesting to find out that “Orca” is the Latin word for “cask” or “barrel” and it would probably refers to the robust form of the animal. In other ancient cultures, such as Romans, Orcus was the word to describe the god of the netherworld.
The wildlife activity around Punta Vicente Roca continued with the sighting of the rather bizarre looking “ocean sun-fish” (Mola mola), that greeted us with its 10 feet length caudal fin. With so much excitement and sightings going on, we decided to do some snorkeling. The snorkeling was just spectacular! Lots of Pacific green sea turtles were foraging and swimming amusingly among us. Unexpectedly, a 15 feet wing span Manta ray gracefully showed up and displayed its mysterious beauty.
In the afternoon, the speechless island of Fernandina talked to us through the visit at Punta Espinoza. It seemed that magically, this island whispered the word origin on our ears. The walk on the island took us over an immense, black flow of lava called pahoe-hoe, where mangroves plants and the endemic lava cactus grow. Paradoxically, shells were waiting to be decomposed by time and form sandy beaches. Marine iguanas were sunbathing and spitting salt after their daily algae meal. Meanwhile, flightless cormorants were stretching their wings and sea lion pups were playing in the tide-pools curiously sniffing at us. Sadly we had to go, and Fernandina said good-bye to us with a little bit of an overcast summit, but a with a rather impressive sun set! “Breathless days like this should last 30 hours!”
With an invigorating sunrise at Roca Redonda, hundreds of sea birds surrounded the tip of this submerged volcano. Red-billed tropic birds, shearwaters, storm petrels, Nazca boobies swallow tailed-gulls and frigate birds had a “sushi” festival around the area. The upwelling currents at this area allowed us to have the pleasure on marine mammal observation. As we were having breakfast, a pod of graceful, streamlined-shape common dolphins appeared at the vicinity of the ship. The day couldn’t begin start any better!
After crossing the Equator, the dramatic landscape from a collapsed Volcano called Ecuador, let us understand the formation of the islands. Later in the morning we had the chance to explore geologically Punta Vicente Roca or locally known as “oreja de burro” (donkey’s ear). Here, we found the biggest marine iguanas we have seen so far! They were basking on the rocks accompanied by flightless cormorants, brown pelicans, blue-footed boobies, fur sea lions, sally-light foot crabs and Galápagos penguins. Suddenly and surprisingly, two large toothed dolphins, better known as Orcas, bow-rode our Zodiac. It was interesting to find out that “Orca” is the Latin word for “cask” or “barrel” and it would probably refers to the robust form of the animal. In other ancient cultures, such as Romans, Orcus was the word to describe the god of the netherworld.
The wildlife activity around Punta Vicente Roca continued with the sighting of the rather bizarre looking “ocean sun-fish” (Mola mola), that greeted us with its 10 feet length caudal fin. With so much excitement and sightings going on, we decided to do some snorkeling. The snorkeling was just spectacular! Lots of Pacific green sea turtles were foraging and swimming amusingly among us. Unexpectedly, a 15 feet wing span Manta ray gracefully showed up and displayed its mysterious beauty.
In the afternoon, the speechless island of Fernandina talked to us through the visit at Punta Espinoza. It seemed that magically, this island whispered the word origin on our ears. The walk on the island took us over an immense, black flow of lava called pahoe-hoe, where mangroves plants and the endemic lava cactus grow. Paradoxically, shells were waiting to be decomposed by time and form sandy beaches. Marine iguanas were sunbathing and spitting salt after their daily algae meal. Meanwhile, flightless cormorants were stretching their wings and sea lion pups were playing in the tide-pools curiously sniffing at us. Sadly we had to go, and Fernandina said good-bye to us with a little bit of an overcast summit, but a with a rather impressive sun set! “Breathless days like this should last 30 hours!”
