We are almost at the beginning of our Galapagos Islands exploration. Along the way different landscapes and wildlife have been spotted by our guests. The island of Isabela was our next destination, and Lynn Fowler, our expedition leader, had an organized schedule for the morning in Punta Vicente Roca. The first activity consisted of a one hour Zodiac ride in search of the elusive flightless cormorant and the ocean sunfish. From the beginning to the end many were found quite far away of the shoreline. I decided to jump in with the underwater camera in a failed attempt to capture some short footage of them. 

After a short time we really had to push through the morning with so many things to see out there. At the snorkeling site, the same one as the ride, we finally all had the privilege to explore the underwater dazzling neighborhood filled with dozens of new wildlife. The rich marine ecosystem bait with some cold waters brought us right in the first minute five ocean sunfish (mola ramsay). This is the largest bone fish in the world and it may also stand with the largest size increase on record, at nearly 1 to 1,000,000 proportion.  

The conditions for snorkeling were the best ones since 2010 in my personal opinion, how lucky our guest were as they also found lots of penguins, flightless cormorants, and probably more than 60 green sea turtles. The underwater footage captured during this moment today was also some of the best I have ever managed to film. 

At the Island of Fernandina, Jonathan, Walter, and I disembarked in order to hike in Punta Espinosa. The area is well known by geologists all around the world for its high volcanic activity and by biologists for the high density of marine iguanas along the coast. Perpetual cold waters traveling nearly 9,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean bring nutrients and hundreds of plankton organisms here, some of them never seen before. 

The walk began and we divided into groups for a better experience. It was a hard moment at some point to multitask to answer everyone’s question about this area but also inspiring to have our young explorer’s enthusiasm moving from one place to another. They are so curious and is a great motivation to follow them and lose the leadership mindset for a second! 

The portraits taken on this place by mind and cameras will remain in the eternity of our memories.