In the wee hours of this morning, Captain Jaramillo had our bosun haul up our anchor and we navigated east to the coast of Isabela Island and anchored in Urbina Bay at the base of Volcan Alcedo. We had breakfast and then made a choice between a two mile walk that started along the shore, led across a pile of lava boulders and then on an inland loop, or a shorter mile long walk that took us behind the landing beach and across fairly easy terrain. On both of the hikes we found many large male land iguanas that fearlessly posed for our cameras. Once they are adults these big lizards have no natural predators; hawks and herons may take the juveniles so they are more wary. We saw Galapagos hawks this morning, one perched on the lava boulders on the coastal trail and a pair at a bulky stick nest in a Palo Santo tree further inland.
I had explained in the evening briefing that Urbina Bay was uplifted in the mid 1950’s and on our walks we saw old coral heads which are slowly disintegrating in the hot equatorial sun and encrusted lava rocks that were once on the ocean floor. We came to the old beach made up of rounded lava pebbles that are now high and dry and a quarter mile from the current shoreline.
The waves were impressive as they broke on the steep black landing beach but with the help of our talented Zodiac drivers and our guides, we got out of and back into the black rubber boats without any mishaps! It was too rough for most of us to swim (except the adventuresome few!) from the beach, so some of us jumped off from the ship – with permission of course! - and had a cool swim before lunch.
In the afternoon we visited Tagus Cove at the base of Darwin volcano and had several outings to choose from: there were two rounds of kayaking, snorkeling, two groups hiking and/or a Zodiac ride. Many of us joined two outings and everyone had a marvelous time. The kayakers and panga riders saw penguins, flightless cormorants and blue footed boobies along the coast. Not to mention of course the sea lions and sea turtles that bobbed in the water close to the boats. Highlights for the snorkelers were cormorants and penguins in the water with us, many feeding sea turtles, a rare horn shark and cold water fish species we had not seen previously. Yes, the water was COLD - 68 degrees F at Tagus Cove!
We made a dry landing on a lava dock, carefully stepping around a flightless cormorant that has three eggs in a bulky sea weed nest smack on the disembarkation steps! Two weeks ago the cormorants were building their nest, and now they are incubating. It will be interesting to see if they are able to raise their brood in that unlikely spot right on our hiking trail!
We hiked above Darwin Crater Lake and had a lovely view as the sunset. The sky blushed pink and orange and it was nearly dark by the time we had all returned to the ship. We were content and tired after another fabulous day in Las Islas Galapagos!
