We woke up this morning anchored in front of Urbina Bay on the west coast of Isabela Island. Urbina Bay is an area that was uplifted from the bottom of the sea in early 1954. We walked along a sandy trail which is now the home for the endemic Galapagos land iguana. Nowadays we find thick, dense vegetation, but it was not always like this. Until 1982 this place had little vegetation. It was after the strong Niño event of 1982-1983 and its strong rains that vegetation started to grow so much here.
Today we found Galapagos cotton, yellow cordia, Manzanillo trees and several other species of plants. Along the way we encountered several male Galapagos land iguanas with their bright yellow skin color which means they are in mating season. This morning not only males were seen, we also found some females which are not as colorful, but they looked interested in some colorful males and were observed walking near the male’s territories. It was a nice warm and sunny morning so after our walk we headed to the beach for a swim. There, some of our guests were able to find a small school of spotted eagle rays and many green sea turtles swimming off the coast.
At the end of the morning we returned aboard and started to navigate to Tagus Cove on Isabela Island. As we arrived to this bay, we went snorkeling, kayaking and on Zodiac rides along the coast. This afternoon we encountered sea lions, Galapagos penguins, brown pelicans and several nests of Galapagos flightless cormorants. Many of the volcanoes from Isabela were visible so we also had great landscapes to observe.
The day ended with a spectacular sunset that turned all the hills around us red! It was a great journey in Galapagos!
