Isabela and Fernandina Islands
Today we arrived very early in the morning to the western side of Galápagos, and it is one of our favorite places in the archipelago because of its richness and the marvelous landscape.
We began our journey navigating around “Roca Redonda” where thousands of birds were hovering about our heads, looking for food. An active group of bottle-nosed dolphins repeatedly interrupted their feeding activities to come check us out and ride our bow wave.
After a delicious breakfast, we crossed the equatorial line and received very interesting information about the geology of Ecuador Volcano, of which half the caldera collapsed and now lies beneath the ocean. We easily observed the remaining half caldera floor; cinder cones and black lava fields, all of which reminded us about the forces of nature necessary to build the planet in which we live.
We arrived later on to our visitor site, Punta Vicente Roca, for a fantastic Zodiac ride along the coast; we enjoyed our time there observing magnificent frigate birds, brown noddy terns, blue-footed boobies, Galápagos fur seals, Galápagos sea lions, flightless cormorants, and Galápagos penguins.
In the afternoon, we went with some of our guests snorkeling on Punta Espinoza and found there many Pacific green sea-turtles that swam with us, and many different types of fish were feeding on the same area.
Since the waters around these islands are very rich in nutrients and algae grow abundantly there are many organisms that depend on it like marine iguanas, sea turtles, fish and crabs, also their predators will be indirectly affected by the abundance or lack of food.
Our walk along Punta Espinoza was amazing as we have the largest colonies of marine iguanas in their breeding colors, head bobbing, while females gathered around them around the lava rocks and sandy areas, some of these males were seen trying hard to reach some fast running female iguanas.
Many males Galápagos sea lions were observed guarding their territories while females were coming back on shore to nurse their very small babies.
We spent some time taking pictures of male marine iguanas as you can see on this picture while the afternoon started to vanish.
We came aboard and we are glad and happy of being able to see all these wonderful islands.
Today we arrived very early in the morning to the western side of Galápagos, and it is one of our favorite places in the archipelago because of its richness and the marvelous landscape.
We began our journey navigating around “Roca Redonda” where thousands of birds were hovering about our heads, looking for food. An active group of bottle-nosed dolphins repeatedly interrupted their feeding activities to come check us out and ride our bow wave.
After a delicious breakfast, we crossed the equatorial line and received very interesting information about the geology of Ecuador Volcano, of which half the caldera collapsed and now lies beneath the ocean. We easily observed the remaining half caldera floor; cinder cones and black lava fields, all of which reminded us about the forces of nature necessary to build the planet in which we live.
We arrived later on to our visitor site, Punta Vicente Roca, for a fantastic Zodiac ride along the coast; we enjoyed our time there observing magnificent frigate birds, brown noddy terns, blue-footed boobies, Galápagos fur seals, Galápagos sea lions, flightless cormorants, and Galápagos penguins.
In the afternoon, we went with some of our guests snorkeling on Punta Espinoza and found there many Pacific green sea-turtles that swam with us, and many different types of fish were feeding on the same area.
Since the waters around these islands are very rich in nutrients and algae grow abundantly there are many organisms that depend on it like marine iguanas, sea turtles, fish and crabs, also their predators will be indirectly affected by the abundance or lack of food.
Our walk along Punta Espinoza was amazing as we have the largest colonies of marine iguanas in their breeding colors, head bobbing, while females gathered around them around the lava rocks and sandy areas, some of these males were seen trying hard to reach some fast running female iguanas.
Many males Galápagos sea lions were observed guarding their territories while females were coming back on shore to nurse their very small babies.
We spent some time taking pictures of male marine iguanas as you can see on this picture while the afternoon started to vanish.
We came aboard and we are glad and happy of being able to see all these wonderful islands.
