As we travel south we have Fernandina Island on the west and Isabela Island on the east. Our destination is the foot of Alcedo Volcano. This island is the largest in the Galápagos and is larger than the rest of the islands put together! This was the location of our morning excursion, in the dry forest among the Galapagos land iguanas.
We had a wet landing at Urbina bay on a black, sandy beach. This cold sea of the western Galapagos is home to thousands of Pacific green sea turtles and this little beach is one of their main nesting sites around here. The breeding season is long gone, but we see turtles everywhere! Some of these turtles spend their lives foraging in these nutrient rich waters on this side of the Galápagos. Others make long journeys to South America, Central America, and as far north as Mexico.
Moments after we landed we had our first sighting of flocks of Darwin’s finches feeding off grass seeds and others feeding off the berries from the Cordia bushes. The foot of Volcán Alcedo is home to a large colony of land iguanas. We spotted many iguanas basking in the sun close to the trail. Some of them were a little lazy and they were still resting inside burrows.
Upon our return we moved to a different location. It has an amazing scenic view of volcanoes and the dry palo santo forest. This place is called Tagus Cove after the HMS Tagus. High cliffs with layers of volcanic ash are the result of many volcanic eruptions and make up this amazing landscape. Here we found sea birds such as pelicans, blue footed boobies, and penguins. They were all fishing in the same spot! What a show they gave to us. From here some of us went kayaking and there was also an opportunity to explore this location with snorkeling gear. As we explored we spotted sea turtles, flightless cormorants, great blue herons and many Galapagos penguins.
