Our expedition led us to explore the central area of Isabela, where it’s known that the ocean floor uplifted above sea level. After breakfast we had a wet landing at Urbina Bay, a nice gray sandy beach that the Pacific green sea turtles had chosen as a nesting place.
As we went into the greenery of the island, we found several giant tortoises shading under the poison apple trees and some eating the small poison apples. What is fascinating to me as a biologist is the fact that secondary succession happened in this area; a place that once held a complex marine ecosystem nowadays is a green habitat for giant reptiles and birds inhabiting this well-developed land ecosystem.
The species of giant tortoise from Alcedo Volcano was found in this area, with many seen being active and some just resting. Some of us went exploring on a longer hike to encounter large coral heads uplifted near the coast.
During the afternoon we visited Tagus Cove, a place where the waters were calm and allowed us to have wonderful kayaking along the coast, where we had the chance to find some penguins fishing and flightless cormorants nesting. It did rain for a couple of hours but it did not stop us from snorkeling with sea turtles and penguins in this area. Later in the afternoon we had a Zodiac ride and a hike to explore the lookout area along Darwin’s Lake up on the cliff areas of a small parasitic volcano.
After a great day in the Galápagos, we continued our expedition of the enchanted archipelago.
