Isabela and Fernandina Island
The first light of the morning showed us thousands of seabirds “swarming” around Roca Redonda, which is a peak of an extinct volcano. The upwelling on this area makes a feast for Audubon shearwaters, Red-billed tropicbirds, Elliot’s storm petrels, Nazca boobies, brown noddy terns, swallow-tailed gulls and frigate birds. Some bottle-nosed dolphins were bow riding the Polaris for a few minutes. Nevertheless, after we crossed the Equator, King Neptune baptized our guests officially with three escorting-logging Sperm whales. This toothed whale species was known to be abundant around the Galápagos Islands. Herman Melville describes in “Moby Dick” the bloody events of the nineteenth-century whalers, but they were probably the first humans to be aware of the sperm whale vocalizations. They reported hearing sperm whales’ knocking and hammering sounds through the hulls of their ships. The sperm whales’ clicks are thought to originate from cartilaginous valve-like structures in the nasal passages toward the front of the head. Its sideway blow is very distinctive. Continuing the marine celebration during the snorkeling the sea-turtles were feeding on seaweed and King Neptune offered his loyal equatorial penguins huge schools of silvery sardines. Our guests witnessed it all!
In the afternoon landing on the magical Fernandina Island let us speechless through the wildlife interaction. This pristine island resembles origin. The life cycle was running around different species. Mesozoic marine iguanas “piled”, spitting salt and fighting for territories and females, pioneer lava cactus growing on pahoe-hoe lava fields, flightless cormorants nesting, sea lions nursing and Galápagos hawks hunting. What a spectacular day!
The first light of the morning showed us thousands of seabirds “swarming” around Roca Redonda, which is a peak of an extinct volcano. The upwelling on this area makes a feast for Audubon shearwaters, Red-billed tropicbirds, Elliot’s storm petrels, Nazca boobies, brown noddy terns, swallow-tailed gulls and frigate birds. Some bottle-nosed dolphins were bow riding the Polaris for a few minutes. Nevertheless, after we crossed the Equator, King Neptune baptized our guests officially with three escorting-logging Sperm whales. This toothed whale species was known to be abundant around the Galápagos Islands. Herman Melville describes in “Moby Dick” the bloody events of the nineteenth-century whalers, but they were probably the first humans to be aware of the sperm whale vocalizations. They reported hearing sperm whales’ knocking and hammering sounds through the hulls of their ships. The sperm whales’ clicks are thought to originate from cartilaginous valve-like structures in the nasal passages toward the front of the head. Its sideway blow is very distinctive. Continuing the marine celebration during the snorkeling the sea-turtles were feeding on seaweed and King Neptune offered his loyal equatorial penguins huge schools of silvery sardines. Our guests witnessed it all!
In the afternoon landing on the magical Fernandina Island let us speechless through the wildlife interaction. This pristine island resembles origin. The life cycle was running around different species. Mesozoic marine iguanas “piled”, spitting salt and fighting for territories and females, pioneer lava cactus growing on pahoe-hoe lava fields, flightless cormorants nesting, sea lions nursing and Galápagos hawks hunting. What a spectacular day!
