I awoke around 5:45 a.m. and I saw through the porthole of my cabin that the sun was rising. The sea looked very smooth and a few minutes later, our expedition leader announced that common dolphins have been spotted at the bow of the ship. I grabbed my camera and arrived to see a unique and spectacular show- around 400 dolphins surrounded our boat and several birds (red footed boobies, petrels, pelicans, frigates and shearwaters) were part of a feeding frenzy. It was a great way to start our day!
This morning we headed to Isabela to a place called Punta Vicente Roca. It is part of the Ecuador Volcano, one of the six that forms this big island. On our way there we passed over the equatorial line and so we celebrated at the bridge, counting down until we got to 00’00, 00.
When we arrived we rode our Zodiacs along the coast in search of sea birds and some mammals such as as fur sea lions and Galapagos sea lions. Our main goal was to see the flightless cormorants and Galapagos penguins and hooray! we saw few of them basking on the black lava. Galapagos penguins are so cute! They are very small and graceful while walking on the rocks, but once they get into water they become as fast as bullets that swiftly prey on very small fish and crustaceans.
Later we returned to the same spot for snorkeling. It is considered one of the best places in the Galapagos to do so because you have the opportunity to swim with sea lions, penguins, cormorants, so many kinds of fish, sharks, iguanas and rays. Yeah! You see all of these creatures in one single place. Our intrepid guests were thrilled with their experience at this special location.
In the afternoon we continued sailing to visit the youngest island, one of the more pristine places, and one of the most active volcanoes in the world- Fernandina.
Once there, we disembarked on a little jetty then we walked onto a big lava field along the coast. The tide was getting high and water filled several lagoons at the intertidal zone. Some baby sea lions use these ponds as nurseries and hundreds of sally light foot crabs are seen everywhere contrasting their bright red shells against the black lava rocks. There is an animal that takes advantage of the black rocks and that is the marine iguana which are camouflaged so well. Three Galapagos hawks interrupted the quiet of this quiet excursion. They were screaming and fighting in the air. Cormorants were nesting and we found several nests with their little chicks.
Around 5:45 pm we ended our visit to Punta Espinoza. The sky turned orange and red while the sun dropped below the horizon. We had cocktails on the sun deck to celebrate life and to toast this magical place which day after day surprises all of us.
