Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove, Isabela Island
Today has been great! From swimming with penguins and sea lions to finding about fourteen giant tortoises in the wild, it was awesome! In the last years at Urbina Bay we have never found so many of these emblematic animals of the islands because of the introduction of feral goats to Isabela and their competition for food directly with them; but now, once their territory was restored and all the alien creatures eradicated, they are coming back.
In 1954 about 1.5 square kilometers of the Urbina Bay shoreline came above the sea in the span of seven days; it is hard to believe! When you walk there and see all the remains of giant pieces of white coral inland, sand dollars buried in the sand, and caves where fish or other creatures escaped from their predators, it’s difficult to picture that one day not so long ago this place was part of the marine ecosystem.
Later, further along the trail, very yellow land iguanas were decorating the narrow trail surrounded by green vegetation. Below the bushes many giant tortoises were cooling off and some were eating grass, so fearless, ignoring us; this behavior reminded us of the pirate’s era in Galápagos, when they hunted them for food and how easily they were captured; thankfully now they are protected and their dynasty restored. But not only did these reptiles need to cool off, our intrepid travelers did too; as soon we arrived back to the black beach they got into the blue ocean, to relax and enjoy life.
In the afternoon we moved to Tagus Cove, where some guests went kayaking along the shoreline to observe cormorants, seabirds, shore birds and some marine mammals; after this activity we snorkeled around the cove while at the same time our staff was working with our ROV (remote operated vehicle) to send it deep in the ocean (about 300 feet). The mission? To find new creatures that have never been recorded before. I’m proud to work for Lindblad-National Geographic; we are pioneers in Galápagos in high tech. Now this new “toy” from our vessel will give to all of us a new vision, a new concept of how to explore a pristine, untouched undersea world and to support at the same time all the efforts to preserve the Galápagos Islands for future generations to come, by means of science and knowledge.
In this moment, while I describe our day and finish my report, our happy travelers are more and more in touch with the islands, enthusiastic questions about tomorrow’s activities are asked to our expedition leader Paula Tagle; and our young explorers enjoy a pizza night. It was a great day!
