We arrived this morning to the western edge of Galapagos and navigated along the northern most side of Isabela Island. We looked for wildlife from the ship and found a large pod of common dolphins swimming gracefully and fast. There were also blue footed boobies fishing, magnificent frigate birds and some Galapagos petrels around the area.
After breakfast we crossed the equatorial line and later on in the morning we reached the north-western corner of Isabela. There we anchored right next to Ecuador volcano and headed to Punta Vicente Roca for a Zodiac ride along the coast. Along the shore there were Galapagos penguins, flightless cormorants, Galapagos sea lions and several green sea turtles swimming and feeding on jelly fish and algae. This morning we also went snorkeling in deep water with sea turtles, flightless cormorants, and several species of fish in nice warm water with great visibility and sunny weather.
At the end of the morning we returned aboard and navigated to Fernandina Island, there we explored the coast of Punta Espinoza and observed one of the largest colonies of Galapagos marine iguanas in the archipelago. The marine iguana of the Galapagos is the only one to dive and graze algae off the rocks underwater and there right in front of our eyes we saw several getting out of the water and a few swimming out to get food.
At the end of the afternoon we enjoyed the colorful sunset and returned aboard National Geographic Islander where we shared the great experiences of the day on Isabela and Fernandina Islands.
