Isabela and Fernandina Islands, 12/7/2022, National Geographic Islander II
Aboard the
National Geographic Islander II
Galápagos
Galapagos is an archipelago formed by more than 300 islands, islets, rocks, and volcanoes. Some of the volcanoes are still active. Every couple of years, we observe volcanic activity.
After an overnight navigation, we woke up in the western part of the Galapagos this morning to look for whales, seabirds, and impressive geology formations.
Walter was born in a very small town on the mainland of Ecuador. His first trip to the Galápagos was when he was 12 years old, visiting friends and aunt, who had moved to the islands. From the first moment he saw the Islands, he fell in love with the...
Today our guests experienced Santiago Island. This is the Island that Darwin explored the most when he visited the Galapagos back in 1835. Darwin, together with some of the crew of HMS Beagle, camped on the island of Santiago for a week. While on the island, Darwin studied Galapagos marine and land iguanas, collected finches, mockingbirds, insects, and plants. Most of the species that Darwin collected were unique to the islands.
The sunrise was spectacular, yet a bit spooky. The thin fog spread across the surface of a glassy ocean, signaling we had come into an area of cold upwelled water. The lines of turbulence on the surface had all the terns, shearwaters, and storm petrels in a feeding frenzy. Later, at Punta Vicente Roca, the northwesternmost tip of Isabela Island, we followed the coast closely in Zodiacs. Fur seals, marine iguanas, Galapagos sea lions, blue-footed boobies, and brown noddy terns rested on the ledges. The afternoon on shore was marine iguana central and one had to watch where one stepped. Our outing was complete when penguins finally made their appearance along the shore.
With a very relaxing hike at North Seymour Island, our day began. We enjoyed a nice, breezy shore walk among a massive colony of blue-footed boobies and amazing views. Later on Rabida Island, we had a great snorkel excursion with a bunch of marine birds, in addition to a colony of sea lions. We enjoyed the uncommon landscape of the red island of Rabida, with its pronounced cliffs and a bunch of diving boobies.
