Isabela and Fernandina Islands
Our amazing day started in the early hours with a circumnavigation of “Roca Redonda” where we observed millions of birds hovering around this rock which is just the very top of a volcano with most of its aerial structure underwater. Today, it has become the home for many seabirds and sea lions.
We continued our journey traveling to the northwestern area of Isabela Island, the largest in the archipelago, with 50% of the total land mass of the National Park. We crossed the equator line and after the ceremony for first time crossers, we spotted some Orcas (a.k.a killer whales) swimming close to the ship. Suddenly one of them swam right to us and disappeared under our ship. As soon as we reached our anchorage site we headed towards the Orcas and we had an exceptional Zodiac ride with the top predators of the oceans. There was a female and a huge male feeding on Pacific green sea turtles and they didn’t seem to care that we were there. They showed us their hunting skills right next to our boats.
After some time with the first Orcas we spotted a second group of them, possibly part of the same pod. There were many Galápagos shearwaters, frigate birds and storm petrels trying to take some leftovers, so we witnessed this amazing interaction of sea birds and Orcas.
Just as we started to head to the ship, as a big surprise, an enormous pod of pilot whales came around the same location and stayed near us for some time.
After all these exciting experiences we went snorkeling with lots of sea turtles and a small group of 4 penguins came to play with our guests, along with many blue-footed boobies plunge diving and incredible visibility.
For the afternoon we visited the very outstanding island of Fernandina and our weather couldn’t have been better: warm and sunny. During our Zodiac ride we found 3 pairs of Galápagos penguins mating at the same time, one couple right next to the other, while a large school of spotted eagle rays swam peacefully on the warm surface.
On Punta Espinoza we observed some Galápagos flightless cormorants nesting, lots of marine iguanas were sunbathing on the shore, and some solitary lava herons were looking for some Sally light-foot crabs while sea lions played on the surf.
We had such amazing day; we will all keep these many marvelous moments with us forever!
Our amazing day started in the early hours with a circumnavigation of “Roca Redonda” where we observed millions of birds hovering around this rock which is just the very top of a volcano with most of its aerial structure underwater. Today, it has become the home for many seabirds and sea lions.
We continued our journey traveling to the northwestern area of Isabela Island, the largest in the archipelago, with 50% of the total land mass of the National Park. We crossed the equator line and after the ceremony for first time crossers, we spotted some Orcas (a.k.a killer whales) swimming close to the ship. Suddenly one of them swam right to us and disappeared under our ship. As soon as we reached our anchorage site we headed towards the Orcas and we had an exceptional Zodiac ride with the top predators of the oceans. There was a female and a huge male feeding on Pacific green sea turtles and they didn’t seem to care that we were there. They showed us their hunting skills right next to our boats.
After some time with the first Orcas we spotted a second group of them, possibly part of the same pod. There were many Galápagos shearwaters, frigate birds and storm petrels trying to take some leftovers, so we witnessed this amazing interaction of sea birds and Orcas.
Just as we started to head to the ship, as a big surprise, an enormous pod of pilot whales came around the same location and stayed near us for some time.
After all these exciting experiences we went snorkeling with lots of sea turtles and a small group of 4 penguins came to play with our guests, along with many blue-footed boobies plunge diving and incredible visibility.
For the afternoon we visited the very outstanding island of Fernandina and our weather couldn’t have been better: warm and sunny. During our Zodiac ride we found 3 pairs of Galápagos penguins mating at the same time, one couple right next to the other, while a large school of spotted eagle rays swam peacefully on the warm surface.
On Punta Espinoza we observed some Galápagos flightless cormorants nesting, lots of marine iguanas were sunbathing on the shore, and some solitary lava herons were looking for some Sally light-foot crabs while sea lions played on the surf.
We had such amazing day; we will all keep these many marvelous moments with us forever!
