This trip really is exhausting, very early starts and long walks on the day, it’s no wonder the trip has a health warning. The morning started getting over full at the buffet breakfast, then it was back on the zodiac to Urbina Bay on Isabela Island, the largest in the Galapagos and made up of 4 volcanoes’ collided together. The sand was completely black, and is one of the Galapagos newest islands, sadly the ones further to the right that we have already visited such as Espanola are slowly dying and will eventually be gobbled up by the sea. All of the islands move to the eat, and the hotspot (currently under Fernandina) makes new islands.
As soon as we arrived on Isabela we were greeted by 11 Galapagos hawks just watching us from the trees and stood on the sand, they followed us throughout the walk, they were all adolescents so very intrigued about us. We saw the huge land iguana with their yellow skin and the piece de resistance…the giant tortoise in the wild. We saw a couple of babies (only 8 years old), then an older one of about 15 years old but still these were small compared to how large they are going to get. I was really looking forward to seeing the tortoise, I have to get one when we get back (a normal size, not a giant one). We saw lots of Darwin’s finches, turtle nests and then it was back on the zodiac to visit one of Galapagos newest island and highest. En route we saw dolphins in the water. This trip really does feel like we are walking through an open zoo.
The afternoon lecture was on the difference between tortoise and turtle. In fact they are all turtles but the English language decided to have 3 names, tortoise, turtle and terrapin. They told us what a tortoise has in it’s house, it doesn’t have shelves or a kitchen, but the top of the shell is it’s backbone! It was a fascinating talk, and half way through we were interrupted by a Brutas whale in the distance. This really is paradise.
After lunch we sailed to Fernandina, the newest of the islands and directly over the hotspot which is comforting to know (new being a few million years only). The island is by far the highest of all the islands, and we had a rare dry landing, however it was directly onto the lava fields which were fascinating. We walked over the glass like Aa lava which is formed from the most violent eruprtion, we wandered over the creeping lava with it’s rolls and the flat smooth lava. As we approached the island there were so many Marine iguana’s and turtles swimming in the water. We did the long walk this time, to see the flightless cormorant, with it’s bedraggled wings that it doesn’t use to fly anymore as it just walks into the water.
We sat at a turtle pool for a long time watching the turtles pop their heads above the water, similarly to the whack a mole game when trying to photograph them. But without a doubt, the biggest thing about this island is the number of marine iguana’s, 3000 of time! They were everywhere, warming themselves up in the sun. They lie on top of each other, use each other as cushions and we freakily had to walk through them. All the while they don’t even flinch but oh my, the smell was awful. We walked over the lava field for so long that the lava started to look like marine iguana’s. I watched a sea lion pup playing with a stick in the shallows, they are so puppy like. We walked past the sea lion crèche and watching iguana’s sneezing the salt out of their nose and then back on board the ship to watch whales, dolphins, tuna being thrust to the top of the water and the feeding frenzy from the birds above. A great sun set ended another day in paradise. .
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