Isabela & Fernandina Island
This morning the National Geographic Islander took us to the youngest geological formation in Galápagos, to explore the coast line of the largest island, Isabela. And that was exactly our plans in order to look for whales. This part of the archipelago is bathed in cold waters rich in nutrients, and that is the main reason this area is the best for cetacean observation.
And what a morning we had! First of all we spotted a pod of common dolphins, secondly we saw a Bryde’s whale with a few manta rays jumping out of the water, and thirdly we saw the largest marine mammal on the planet, a ‘blue whale’ a very uncommon creature for Galápagos. As we kept moving south we were ready to celebrate our equatorial line crossing in the Pacific Ocean.
Soon after, we anchored and took our Zodiacs to explore the wonder of Punta Vicente Roca. The adventure continued as we observed marine iguanas, sea turtles, flightless cormorants, penguins and many other sea birds along the cliffs of this dramatic geological formation.
Our last morning activity was snorkeling at the same location, and our main interest was to see turtles in the water, and we saw lots of them. We swam with penguins as well. Galápagos is probably the only place where people can swim with these amazing sea birds.
In the afternoon we disembarked in a very newly formed island known as Fernandina. This visitor site is very interesting in terms of geology, landscape and because we can have a close approach to flightless cormorants and hundreds of marine iguanas. Fernandina is a pristine place with no introduced animals and that is our big challenge – to restore the giant tortoises’ dynasty.
