Isabela and Fernandina Island
What a surprise we had as we explored the open sea on the western Galápagos Islands! At sunrise we were already up and looking for marine mammals. It wasn’t too long until we spotted common dolphins! We headed in that direction and we had the pod of dolphins close around our ship, some of them were feeding, others were breaching and others approached the ship!
With cameras and binoculars in hand we admired this great show in the middle of the ocean it was very exciting. It wasn’t only dolphins we saw, we also spotted sea lions and several types of seabirds including dark rumped petrels. These seabirds were nearly extinct a few decades ago. Today they have made a great come back, due to the conservation efforts of local institutions like the Galápagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Foundation.
Our destination in the morning was Punta Vicente Roca on Isabela Island. Here we explored the shore from the Zodiacs. This place is teeming with life of all kinds! At the very beginning we spotted Nazca boobies, brown noddy terns and Galápagos fur seals, as well Galápagos sea lions. Just to mention a few. Later on we explored the site closer while snorkeling. We had encounters with pacific green sea turtles and flightless cormorants!
So far we had seen a lot. It was only noon, and we were announcing the presence of a pod of Bride’s whales. It was a real show of marine mammals we were surrounded by. They were spouting everywhere. It seemed to be a feeding frenzy because the whales were close to each other.
In the afternoon we landed at Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island. This place is home to the largest colony of marine iguanas. It also has a colony of flightless cormorants and Galápagos sea lions. Punta Espinoza is the best expression of diversity of marine organisms. Such as: reptiles, crabs, shore birds and marine mammals!
It was just amazing and unexpected!
