Isabela Island
Today we visited one of the most interesting places in the Galápagos archipelago, the western part. The volcanic landscape is overwhelming. Young volcanoes with a perfect “inverted soup plate” profile dominate the area.
Today in the morning we disembarked at one of the visitor sites located in the western part of Isabela Island known as Urbina bay at the base of Alcedo Volcano. This is a very out of the ordinary place to visit, for an impressive geological event happened here over fifty years ago. One and a half square kilometers of marine reef were uplifted in 1954 by as much as four meters. The marine creatures were left high and dry and even today it is possible to see some of the invertebrates incrusted in the rocks. The trail followed along this very interesting shoreline and also head inland, where during our exploration we found many large land iguanas sunbathing in open areas and also close to their burrows. The large and colorful males definitely caught our attention. There was also a sighting in the distance of a giant tortoise. Back at the landing site some of us enjoyed swimming from a black beach in the calm waters of the bay.
Our explorations in the afternoon took us to another place located in the southern part of this large island. We landed on the coast and had a walk over a captivating and vast lava flow. In the background two fascinating volcanoes were seen: Sierra Negra volcano, where the last eruption took place (just two years ago) and Cerro Azul volcano. We found in the middle of this huge lava flow some brackish water lagoons which looked like oasis. Green vegetation surrounded the lagoons and to top the day off we observed flamingos looking for food in these waters. The whole experience was simply was astonishing!
Today we visited one of the most interesting places in the Galápagos archipelago, the western part. The volcanic landscape is overwhelming. Young volcanoes with a perfect “inverted soup plate” profile dominate the area.
Today in the morning we disembarked at one of the visitor sites located in the western part of Isabela Island known as Urbina bay at the base of Alcedo Volcano. This is a very out of the ordinary place to visit, for an impressive geological event happened here over fifty years ago. One and a half square kilometers of marine reef were uplifted in 1954 by as much as four meters. The marine creatures were left high and dry and even today it is possible to see some of the invertebrates incrusted in the rocks. The trail followed along this very interesting shoreline and also head inland, where during our exploration we found many large land iguanas sunbathing in open areas and also close to their burrows. The large and colorful males definitely caught our attention. There was also a sighting in the distance of a giant tortoise. Back at the landing site some of us enjoyed swimming from a black beach in the calm waters of the bay.
Our explorations in the afternoon took us to another place located in the southern part of this large island. We landed on the coast and had a walk over a captivating and vast lava flow. In the background two fascinating volcanoes were seen: Sierra Negra volcano, where the last eruption took place (just two years ago) and Cerro Azul volcano. We found in the middle of this huge lava flow some brackish water lagoons which looked like oasis. Green vegetation surrounded the lagoons and to top the day off we observed flamingos looking for food in these waters. The whole experience was simply was astonishing!
