Today we woke up with the wonderful view of Urbina Bay. This place is of great geological interest for an unusual and recent event took place here as recently as 1954. An earthquake of 6.5 on the Richter Scale on that date provoked a huge area adjacent to the coastline to be suddenly uplifted, leaving many marine creatures high and dry. It’s still possible to see, as relics of this event, huge pieces of brain coral inland.

In this area there is a healthy population of Galápagos land iguanas as well. We saw fifteen of them along the trails. We even spotted some few Galápagos giant tortoises in the wild as well. Many flowers were found everywhere including the beautiful Galápagos cotton flower. At the end of the walks we had the chance to cool off in the landing beach.

Once we were all aboard the ship was repositioned to the south to Tagus Cove, the place where we will spend the afternoon. After lunch we had an early kayaking outing followed by snorkeling. We put on our gear to explore the underwater world by doing deep-water snorkeling in an exotic location that today was at its best, for it was sunny and the waters were not as cool as expected. Visibility was not the best but we were fortunate for we had great sea turtles sightings.

In the late afternoon we disembarked at Tagus Cove for an unforgettable fast-paced hike along the rim of a volcanic tuff cone. We saw an inner lake, aptly named Darwin in honor of the great naturalist who was around this area when he visited the Galápagos in 1835. After ascending to a look point we had a beautiful view that was described by some guests as spectacular and magical. Some guests opted to go for a Zodiac ride instead of the walk. The Zodiac ride was successful for we had the chance to cover a long distance admiring the striking volcanic landscape and looking for wildlife. Many blue footed boobies, brown pelicans, Galápagos sea lions and penguins were seen along the coastline.

As the day was coming to an end we returned to the ship with the company of the last sunrays of the day. We had the satisfaction of having spent a wonderful day in paradise.