We navigated north most of the night, crossing the equator in the wee hours of the morning and at sunrise we were in the northern hemisphere cruising along the coast of Isabela Island. Isabela has the shape of a sea horse and is by far the largest island in the Galapagos archipelago. This island is made up of 5 and one half giant volcanic calderas all joined together. I gave a pre-breakfast, optional wake-up call on channel one at 0615 and many of our guests joined us on the sky and bow decks to search for cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and sea birds. Within the hour we were rewarded with a sighting of a pod of at least 50 common dolphins. They leapt and splashed and turned into the sun as we followed them slowly with the National Geographic Islander.
After breakfast we joined Captain Patricio in the bridge and watched the 00.00 appear on the GPS as we crossed the equator. Once the ship was anchored we boarded the four Zodiacs and cruised the coast at Punta Vicente Roca. Thanks to high winds, this was an exciting “panga ride” and we were delighted to find at least 100 sea turtles in the area, plus sea lions, very large marine iguanas, penguins and our first flightless cormorant. The best sighting of all was a huge manta ray that swam along beside several of our Zodiacs in turn.
Those of us strong swimmers and confident snorkelers went out into what looked and felt like a washing machine and snorkeled in the choppy waters of a shallow bay. Conditions were far from good but the wildlife was SUPERB! Fish of all sizes – from nearly microscopic larvae to schools of mullet, angel fish and razor fish which swam among dozens and dozens of sea turtles. The turtles slept on the sandy floor or swam in the water column and above the rocky reef near the point. An additional 6 turtles floated peacefully while fish cleaned their shells of marine algae. A fast moving penguin darted after tiny, panicked schooling fish and a cormorant dove below us searching for his meal on the sea floor.
Back on the ship for lunch and siesta and we thought we had already had an awesome day – but when Second Mate Johnathan radioed me to say there were whale spouts ahead, I knew our day would get even better! But, WOW – I never dreamed we would see 6 blue whales! In the 40 years I have been navigating in Galapagos I have never seen more than 3 at once. We got fabulous looks and even great pictures of these immense and beautiful creatures. One big male dove dramatically just off our bow and showed his tremendous tail as he went down to feed!
The afternoon walk at Punta Espinoza was also quite lovely. From a distance the dark shield volcano appears lifeless and barren. Nothing could be further from the truth! We had to step carefully among the hundreds of marine iguanas, we found lava lizards, someone spotted a snake, and we enjoyed the ever charming sea lions who were out in numbers. A tiny sea lion pup, just a few days old, was particularly adorable. Today will be difficult to surpass, but I’m sure there’s plenty more to encounter during our time in the magical Islas Encantadas of Galapagos!
