Isabela is the largest island of the Galapagos, which covers more than half of its territory. It has so many interesting places to visit. One of them is Urbina Bay, located right in the belly of the sea horse-shaped island. After breakfast we are ready to set foot on this place to enjoy its wonderful flora and fauna. Landing on a black sandy beach we venture inland where most of the animals are found. Our predictions about the giant tortoises were right, they were many, ranging from small to large in size.
The adventure continues, this time to meet the other gentile inhabitants of the area, the mini dinosaur-looking creatures, the Galapagos land iguanas. They are plentiful around here especially after the removal of some of the competitors like feral goats. This expedition is divided in two; a short hike and long hike option which both offer almost equal opportunities, with the long option providing additional exercise.
An incredible number of young Galapagos hawks showed up to make this even more enjoyable. There were also large numbers of birds like Darwin’s finches and mockingbirds. By the middle of the trail we found something quite unusual for dry land, huge pieces of coral heads brought up by tectonic activity in 1954. The evidence of the sudden event are still seen scattered around the perimeter, like sea urchins, turtle bones, shells of all kinds, and barnacles, to confirm the magnitude of it. The end of the hike comes to place with a quick refreshing dip in the blue ocean for most adventurers.
After a great morning we came back to the National Geographic Endeavour by lunchtime to recover energy with an amazing Ecuadorian lunch buffet.
In the afternoon we arrive to a place called Tagus Cove for additional activities, kayaking for some and snorkeling for others, both enjoyable with the amount of wildlife here and there, penguins, cormorants, sea turtles, fishes, and more.
After this concluded we announced two options, one is for a power hike to visit Darwin Lake surrounded by incredible vegetation as well as geology. Others just do it a little more leisurely, on a Zodiac ride to see and photograph wildlife from it.
Another incredible day on the western side of the Galapagos.
