Isabela Island

We enjoyed a night of quiet, since National Geographic Islander stayed anchored till five in the morning, and her start awakened us in the land of volcanoes. Morning started with calm seas, sunrise started at 6:10, air temperature is 80 degrees Fahrenheit, while the water temperature has being around the mid-sixties.

This week on board National Geographic Islander we are sharing wildlife encounters on a Family Departure, with nearly twenty young explorers, all avid to learn and amazed to discover the mysteries of these enchanted islands.

Our first landing took place at Urbina Bay, a site uplifted by the force of Alcedo volcano back in the 1950’s. Here the vegetation has colonized what once was the ocean floor, with bushes from the arid zone: yellow cordea, sandalwood trees, and Galápagos cotton among others. It is this very ecosystem, the one needed for the land iguanas to live. Here they have built large burrows in the rather soft soil, and start to come out to warm up with the first morning sun rays.

Today we saw a dozen land iguanas on the interior of the trail, and young female and baby giant tortoises! Walking along the shoreline to explore the once underwater coral reefs, we spotted in the distance flightless cormorants and brown pelicans sitting on the boulders.

Afterwards, we all enjoy the refreshment of a good swim and snorkel in calm waters.

The day continued with National Geographic Islander heading towards Punta Moreno, where we walk on rather young lava flows that came from Sierra Negra and Cerro Azul volcanoes.

Towards the interior of these lava beds, fissures have allowed seawater to come in, and formed hyper-saline ponds, where lagoon birds feed. We found a few flamingos, white-checked pin-tailed ducks and common stilts. Just outside these lava fields, sea turtles were spotted alongside cormorants and penguins, all of them feeding in the shallows that these lava fields offer.

We then returned to the National Geographic Islander to sit on the Sundeck and contemplate a beautiful sunset as the day came to an end.