Isabela & Fernandina Islands
We started our day navigating along the western side of Isabela Island, with a marvelous view of its volcanoes and young lava flows; as we were heading south we crossed the equator line officially with the permission of King Neptune!
Later in the morning as soon as we dropped the anchor at Vicente Roca Point, we went to explore the site aboard our fleet of Zodiacs. The day was just perfect with clear skies and a calmed sea full of life. We came across penguins, fur sea lions, and perhaps one of the highlights was to find a big group of Orcas hunting ocean sunfish. They were just a few meters from our Zodiac eating, and at the same time we were surrounded by Galápagos shearwaters, storm petrels, brown pelicans and frigate birds, all of them waiting to make a meal out of the whale’s leftovers.
Shortly afterwards we went deep water snorkeling and we found a lot of sea turtles feeding and resting on the sea bottom as well as a great diversity of fish and two big manta rays that passed right next to us.
After our lunch we set sail to the Island of Fernandina and during this navigation some of us spotted many times whales spouts, the upwelling created by Cromwell current make the western part of the Islands a place full of plankton and therefore full of marine life. Once we arrived to Fernandina, we went ashore and did a nature walk on Espinoza Point, a place that has remained intact over the years without any impact caused by man. Walking on the dry lava flows of Fernandina we encountered flightless cormorants, a lot of marine iguanas and Sally Lightfoot crabs.
We started our day navigating along the western side of Isabela Island, with a marvelous view of its volcanoes and young lava flows; as we were heading south we crossed the equator line officially with the permission of King Neptune!
Later in the morning as soon as we dropped the anchor at Vicente Roca Point, we went to explore the site aboard our fleet of Zodiacs. The day was just perfect with clear skies and a calmed sea full of life. We came across penguins, fur sea lions, and perhaps one of the highlights was to find a big group of Orcas hunting ocean sunfish. They were just a few meters from our Zodiac eating, and at the same time we were surrounded by Galápagos shearwaters, storm petrels, brown pelicans and frigate birds, all of them waiting to make a meal out of the whale’s leftovers.
Shortly afterwards we went deep water snorkeling and we found a lot of sea turtles feeding and resting on the sea bottom as well as a great diversity of fish and two big manta rays that passed right next to us.
After our lunch we set sail to the Island of Fernandina and during this navigation some of us spotted many times whales spouts, the upwelling created by Cromwell current make the western part of the Islands a place full of plankton and therefore full of marine life. Once we arrived to Fernandina, we went ashore and did a nature walk on Espinoza Point, a place that has remained intact over the years without any impact caused by man. Walking on the dry lava flows of Fernandina we encountered flightless cormorants, a lot of marine iguanas and Sally Lightfoot crabs.
