Fernandina and Isabela Islands
Early in the morning, we started the fourth day of our expedition with the impressive view of the landscape of northern Isabela, the largest island in the Galápagos. In front of us, Ecuador volcano looked gigantic with its huge collapsed caldera. The caldera is exposed; showing us the remains of what was at one time a huge eruption. The collapsed material formed an enormous tsunami, which waves would have reached the Hawaiian archipelago. Our guests did enjoy the first activity of the day searching for marine mammals from the Sky and Outer Decks. We certainly achieved this goal, for we spotted five Bryde’s, also known as tropical whales, swimming around the National Geographic Islander feeding. The whales were observed for more than 45 minutes. Our guests had the marvelous opportunity to take great photos of this magnificent sighting.
After breakfast, we took one of the most beautiful Zodiac rides of the week. We were around Punta Vicente Roca, where after just five minutes we observed a rare Oceanic sunfish or Mola mola, it looked curious and stayed with us for many minutes. Along the coastline, the geological landscape is impressive. There are land upliftings and lava dikes with black lines that look like veins along the brown lava filling the space of ancient fissures. In the water, sea turtles, flightless cormorants and sea lions were the delight of our guests. After the Zodiac ride, we went back to snorkel with sea turtles; although the water was very cold (67 ¢ªF), it was not an impediment for our guests who took the opportunity to swim with this unique species in this magical place.
In the afternoon, we dropped anchor in front of Punta Espinosa at Fernandina Island. We had low tide, therefore we could not disembark on the small dock because it was completely dry. This place is famous because it was uplifted more than 3 feet in 1974! We landed on black lava rocks, walking carefully, making sure not to step on the many black marine iguanas draped over the landscape. Along the path, we observed how different the geology of this island is; young organic and inorganic beaches displayed their entire components such as small rocks, sea urchin remains, coral and carcasses of marine iguanas eaten by Galápagos hawks just few days ago. In the water, sea turtles momentarily popped their heads up, and flightless cormorants were collecting nesting materials to build their nests. It was near sunset when we returned to the ship, all very happy, because today was an excellent day in this paradise we called Galápagos.
