Today National Geographic Endeavour anchored just offshore of Urbina Bay as first light appeared. We will continue our exploration of the western realm of the Galapagos Islands for a second day, visiting Urbina Bay on the northwestern shores of Alcedo Volcano and Tagus Cove where massive tuff cones lie on the western shores of Darwin Volcano. All of these sites are part of Isabela, the largest Island of the archipelago.
Right after breakfast, we set off on board our Zodiacs for the dark sand beach of Urbina Bay. Here we would split up for hikes of several intensities, after which we would all meet back at the beach for a refreshing swim and an art lesson with our Amy, our resident artist. Our objective was to walk through a dry forest which has grown out of a reef that was uplifted during a volcanic eruption in 1954. Here we enjoyed the scenery, learned about the geology of the islands, had a closer look at the hardy plant life, spotted several land iguanas and even had our first encounter with the famous Galapagos giant tortoise.
While we had lunch, the National Geographic Endeavour repositioned a few miles north to the very same anchorage used by Captain Robert Fitzroy during the 1835 visit of HMS Beagle, which brought Charles Darwin to the Galapagos. Tagus Cove is an excellent natural anchorage inside an eroded volcanic ash cone, from where we would intensively explore the surrounding coastline aboard our Zodiacs. We also offered the opportunity to go kayaking or snorkeling, giving our guests the opportunity to share the water with green sea turtles, feeding marine iguanas and hunting flightless cormorants.
To finish off this amazing day, a few of our guests who still had some energy to spare set off with our naturalists for a late afternoon hike around Darwin Lake and to the summit off a neighboring spatter cone, from where we could look out to both ends of the western side of Isabela Island.
As the sun drew near the horizon, we made our way back to our floating home, wondering what new discoveries await us tomorrow.
