Western of Isabela
Located on the western side of Isabela Island at the foot of Alcedo Volcano, Urbina Bay offers a unique landscape. The landing beach and its adjacent coastline didn’t exist before 1954; that year this area was uplifted by about 5 meters. The pre-uplift beach is now almost an hour walk inland, and the old coral community that used to be underwater is now high-and-dry on the shore.
Early in the morning, National Geographic Islander sailed towards the southwest of Isabela along “volcano avenue”. After breakfast, the first outing invited us to disembark on the black beach with a radiant sun and a very calm sea. Walking along the shore, observing fossilized sea worms and barnacle through the seashore, our guests imagined at what this place was before. But it wasn’t until we arrived at the area where huge coral heads laid outside the water that our guests understood the magnitude of the event occurred here more than fifty years ago. The coral heads looked enormous, and we saw some drilled holes that were made years ago to study the impact of the “El Niño” phenomenon in the past.
Inland, the landscape changed considerably, showing as the success vegetation has had in conquering this new land easily due to its soft composition. The best evidence of this are the iguana’s burrows along the path. We passed beside juvenile giant tortoises and land iguanas, which didn’t pay attention to us.
In the afternoon, after a short navigation, we arrived at Punta Moreno. The huge black lava field looked barren; giving us an idea of how Galápagos looked at its beginnings, imagining how the first creatures arrived, surviving in this inhospitable environment, beginning an incredible evolutionary process that finally has created new and different species.
Walking through the lava field, we arrived up to the “oasis” of brackish water, small lagoons connected with the ocean which shelter many different species of waders, mainly flamingos and moorhens. Of course, our guests observed many of them feeding on small organisms. After walking, we headed out for an incredible Zodiac ride along a labyrinth of red and white mangroves. Horacio (one of the Zodiac drivers) delighted our guests, showing us incredible places where dozens of sea turtles rested indifferent and swimming in a lively way. We also saw mullets, eagle rays and flightless cormorants, and we enjoyed this beautiful place – probably the last refuge we still have our planet.
