I woke up early in the morning and went up to the bridge of our ship. The morning was clear and warm. I took a pair of binoculars and moved to the outside deck, close to the bow, to search for some cetaceans showing up in this area. We are motoring to the west of Galapagos, to visit Punta Vicente Roca on Isabela island this morning, and then later in the afternoon we’ll move to Fernandina island.
My mission this morning was to find dolphins or whales. In the last weeks I could not see them but this time we were lucky and spotted some. Because of the way they were jumping out of the ocean we knew they were common dolphins, and all of our guests congregated on deck to see this magical event. Our captain headed where they were and few minutes later we got an incredible and spectacular show - there were more than 500 hundred common dolphins close to our ship. What a great way to start our day!
Breakfast was served in the dining room, and while we were enjoying our food our ship moved to the equator. The honky sound coming from the beach was the indicator to know we were passing the line, and we all celebrated together!
After the anchor dropped at the foot of Ecuador Volcano, we took a Zodiac ride along a very impressive cliff to see more wildlife. Flightless cormorants, Galapagos penguins, boobies, terns, frigates, and fur sea lions were found everywhere, and the turtles sticking their heads out of the water made us happy, thinking about how great our snorkeling was going to be with all these creatures in the water. In fact, Punta Vicente Roca is a unique place on this planet. Here you can be in the water with the four groups of animals alive on earth: mammals (sea lions and fur sea lions) reptiles (turtles and marine iguanas), birds (cormorants and penguins), and fish (multicolor fish of many kind). It’s amazing!
Later on we jumped into the water and all of our expectations were fulfilled. This is one of the best snorkeling locations in the Galapagos Islands.
In the afternoon we visited Fernandina, the most pristine island of Galapagos. The walk was quiet and peaceful. We found tons of marine iguanas basking on the rocks and multicolored sally lightfoot crabs on the black basaltic lava. The tide was coming up, a few intertidal pools were exposed to them and they were swimming, playing, and resting. The highlight was a newborn sea lion we saw. Just few hours ago its mother did a great job bringing it to life; it was a very tender moment.
At the end of the trail that goes along the shoreline a flock of flightless cormorants were resting on the rocks while many juvenile sea lions, such kids, were playing in the water. The dusk announced the end of our journey and we came back to our ship very happy, enjoying and recalling every single minute of this magical place.
