Isabela & Fernandina Islands
These two islands are located in the West of the Galápagos archipelago, and are the most remote ones. Isabela is also the biggest island, and it offers wonderful views of its young volcanoes. The day started sunny, so we were lucky enough to see the tops of these huge shield volcanoes. This northern part of Isabela Island is reached by an upwelling sea current, and the surrounding seas are pretty deep, so the wildlife here is amazing. After cruising along its coast and crossing the equator line, we had an opportunity to explore this shore in a Zodiac ride. It was certainly an explosion of colours, with stunning geological formations all around us. These formations are the home to various marine-related reptiles, mammals or birds. Here, we observed a small population of Galapagos penguins, busy praying after a large school of fish. This site, known as Punta Vicente Roca, is known because of the numbers of Pacific Green sea turtles that come to this area to forage. Certainly they were numerous, as we could not keep up with the dozens of sea turtles that we spotted both during our Zodiac ride and the snorkelling later on.
The stretch of ocean that divides Isabela and Fernandina Islands is called the Bolivar Channel. It was along this channel, during our midday navigation on board National Geographic Polaris, that we encountered a large pod of common dolphins, to everyone’s delight.
In the afternoon, we visited Punta Espinosa, in the north of Fernandina. This is the youngest volcano of the archipelago, and it is probably one of the last pristine islands in the world. Here, an inhospitable landscape harbors thousands of marine iguanas, distributed along the shoreline. Several Galápagos sea lion pups played along the main beach, while waiting for their mothers to come back to nurse them. A beautiful yellow warbler accompanied us for a short while along the trail, and at the furthest point of this peninsula a small group of the endemic Flightless Cormorants was returning from the sea, and stretched their unusually small wings to dry them in the dying sun. Once the sunrays set below the cloud layer, the whole area lit up in a beautiful orange light and it almost as if the islands were on fire! It was certainly a fantastic day, and we can be sure that we all experienced the magic of the Enchanted Islands.
These two islands are located in the West of the Galápagos archipelago, and are the most remote ones. Isabela is also the biggest island, and it offers wonderful views of its young volcanoes. The day started sunny, so we were lucky enough to see the tops of these huge shield volcanoes. This northern part of Isabela Island is reached by an upwelling sea current, and the surrounding seas are pretty deep, so the wildlife here is amazing. After cruising along its coast and crossing the equator line, we had an opportunity to explore this shore in a Zodiac ride. It was certainly an explosion of colours, with stunning geological formations all around us. These formations are the home to various marine-related reptiles, mammals or birds. Here, we observed a small population of Galapagos penguins, busy praying after a large school of fish. This site, known as Punta Vicente Roca, is known because of the numbers of Pacific Green sea turtles that come to this area to forage. Certainly they were numerous, as we could not keep up with the dozens of sea turtles that we spotted both during our Zodiac ride and the snorkelling later on.
The stretch of ocean that divides Isabela and Fernandina Islands is called the Bolivar Channel. It was along this channel, during our midday navigation on board National Geographic Polaris, that we encountered a large pod of common dolphins, to everyone’s delight.
In the afternoon, we visited Punta Espinosa, in the north of Fernandina. This is the youngest volcano of the archipelago, and it is probably one of the last pristine islands in the world. Here, an inhospitable landscape harbors thousands of marine iguanas, distributed along the shoreline. Several Galápagos sea lion pups played along the main beach, while waiting for their mothers to come back to nurse them. A beautiful yellow warbler accompanied us for a short while along the trail, and at the furthest point of this peninsula a small group of the endemic Flightless Cormorants was returning from the sea, and stretched their unusually small wings to dry them in the dying sun. Once the sunrays set below the cloud layer, the whole area lit up in a beautiful orange light and it almost as if the islands were on fire! It was certainly a fantastic day, and we can be sure that we all experienced the magic of the Enchanted Islands.
