We woke today to the view of volcanoes and lava flows. Our navigation took us around the head of the seahorse-shaped island. We were lucky to spot a pod of dolphins which stayed with the ship for nearly an hour! After breakfast we crossed the equator line toward the Southern Hemisphere and celebrated with a ceremony on the observation deck.
After crossing the equator, we went Zodiac riding along the coast of Isabela and spotted a couple of Galapagos penguins, blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans, sea lions, and Galapagos flightless cormorants. After the Zodiac ride we attended a lecture on the oceanography and geology of the Galapagos Islands.
After lunch we explored the coastline of the youngest island in this archipelago, Fernandina. We went deep-water snorkeling and spotted sea turtles, penguins, sea lions, and a large variety of fish. Some of us chose to go on a glass-bottom boat ride. After our water activities we took our Zodiacs inland for a dry landing on young lava fields and explored the only visitor site on Fernandina: Punta Espinoza. This visitor site was covered with marine iguanas. This was like traveling back in time to experience the islands as they were before they had established ecosystems.
We came back to the ship and had an opportunity to do some wine tasting while we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
