Southern Isabela Island
After a tranquil night at anchor and a good sleep, we beat the sun up this morning. We ate fresh fruit, muffins, coffee, tea and cocoa and disembarked at 0600 on a steep black sand beach that was riddled with the nests of sea turtles. A turtle had nested last night; her fresh tracks down to the tide line and the churned up and thrown sand showed where she had spent several hours burying her eggs. In two months time, the tiny hatchlings will emerge from their eggs, dash down the beach to the ocean and spend the first three to five years of their lives feeding on crustaceans and sea jellies while drifting on currents and hiding in sargasso rafts far out at sea.
This morning we had long and short hike options, and on both we observed evidence of the remains of marine life that had been rapidly push high and dry when lava shifted far underground and a section of this coast line was uplifted in 1954. We found large, lazy land iguanas that now dig their burrows and browse on greenery growing on land that was once washed by the ocean waters. The old beach, with its rounded black lava pebbles and sand, is now a half mile inland. We appreciated the hikes in the cool morning hours and also a hearty breakfast once we had returned to the ship!
In the late morning, some of us swam from the ship and we viewed a video and took a needed break from the fast pace of this amazing expedition we are on. Captain Carlos Garcia and bosun Victor hauled up anchor and we navigated south to Punta Moreno at the base of Cerro Azul and Sierra Negra volcanoes. These are the two most recently active craters in Galápagos. Cerro Azul erupted in May of this year and Sierra Negra erupted in October, 2005.
In the afternoon Gilda spoke about Charles Darwin and his voyage in the mid 1800’s to South America and the Galápagos. He spent just 19 days on shore here, but the insights that his visit sparked changed the course of science.
At 1530 a large party of “lava hikers” trudged off to explore the immense flows of basalt on Southern Isabela. They were charmed to find three, small, brackish lagoons that harbored vibrant green vegetation and several species of birds (including flamingos!) in the midst of the miles and miles of barren, black lava. Others chose a Zodiac ride along the coast and we found huge, marbled rays and golden rays in a shallow mangrove lagoon. On a white washed ledge we photographed and admired monstrous marine iguanas, tiny penguins and the last flightless cormorants we will see this week.
Cormorants inhabit the cool, rich waters around the young and volcanically active islands of Fernandina and Isabela. The richness of this marine realm was obvious as we motored back to the ship in the golden light of the setting the sun. Schools of tuna splashed and fed on shoals of small fish and hundreds of phalaropes and shearwaters dove on these same panicked fish from above. Tonight we sail to the east, headed for the older and smaller islands of Floreana and Hood.
Lynn Fowler, Expedition Leader; Photos: Daniel Sanchez, Naturalist
After a tranquil night at anchor and a good sleep, we beat the sun up this morning. We ate fresh fruit, muffins, coffee, tea and cocoa and disembarked at 0600 on a steep black sand beach that was riddled with the nests of sea turtles. A turtle had nested last night; her fresh tracks down to the tide line and the churned up and thrown sand showed where she had spent several hours burying her eggs. In two months time, the tiny hatchlings will emerge from their eggs, dash down the beach to the ocean and spend the first three to five years of their lives feeding on crustaceans and sea jellies while drifting on currents and hiding in sargasso rafts far out at sea.
This morning we had long and short hike options, and on both we observed evidence of the remains of marine life that had been rapidly push high and dry when lava shifted far underground and a section of this coast line was uplifted in 1954. We found large, lazy land iguanas that now dig their burrows and browse on greenery growing on land that was once washed by the ocean waters. The old beach, with its rounded black lava pebbles and sand, is now a half mile inland. We appreciated the hikes in the cool morning hours and also a hearty breakfast once we had returned to the ship!
In the late morning, some of us swam from the ship and we viewed a video and took a needed break from the fast pace of this amazing expedition we are on. Captain Carlos Garcia and bosun Victor hauled up anchor and we navigated south to Punta Moreno at the base of Cerro Azul and Sierra Negra volcanoes. These are the two most recently active craters in Galápagos. Cerro Azul erupted in May of this year and Sierra Negra erupted in October, 2005.
In the afternoon Gilda spoke about Charles Darwin and his voyage in the mid 1800’s to South America and the Galápagos. He spent just 19 days on shore here, but the insights that his visit sparked changed the course of science.
At 1530 a large party of “lava hikers” trudged off to explore the immense flows of basalt on Southern Isabela. They were charmed to find three, small, brackish lagoons that harbored vibrant green vegetation and several species of birds (including flamingos!) in the midst of the miles and miles of barren, black lava. Others chose a Zodiac ride along the coast and we found huge, marbled rays and golden rays in a shallow mangrove lagoon. On a white washed ledge we photographed and admired monstrous marine iguanas, tiny penguins and the last flightless cormorants we will see this week.
Cormorants inhabit the cool, rich waters around the young and volcanically active islands of Fernandina and Isabela. The richness of this marine realm was obvious as we motored back to the ship in the golden light of the setting the sun. Schools of tuna splashed and fed on shoals of small fish and hundreds of phalaropes and shearwaters dove on these same panicked fish from above. Tonight we sail to the east, headed for the older and smaller islands of Floreana and Hood.
Lynn Fowler, Expedition Leader; Photos: Daniel Sanchez, Naturalist
