We arrived at Punta Vicente Isabela at 06:00 after an overnight crossing of this part of the Pacific and, at midnight the Equator, taking us into the Southern Hemisphere.
We took a panga (dinghy) cruise along the coastline where we saw the remains, following a destructive collapse, of the Volcan Ecuador.
There were many sea birds such as Brown Noddy, Lava Gulls, Blue-footed Booby, Flightless Cormorant, Brown Pelican as well as Galápagos Sea Lions, Marine Iguanas and Green Sea Turtles. As we returned to the ship our guide conducted a measurement of visibility at depth. This showed that below 5m visibility was zero because of the plankton growth at the junction of the Humbolt and Equatorial currents. This may be good for fish and sea animals but not for our next activity conducted upon a glass bottomed boat. A highlight however, was that we saw more birds including a pair of Noddy terns building a nest.
Brown Noddy (pronounced Noody) terns and Lava Gulls
A Brown Pelican and 2 Blue-footed Boobies
Marine Iguanas
This endemic species is the only marine iguana in the world. Seven subspecies occur on the islands.
A Blue-footed Booby
A Noddy tern
Flightless Cormorant
During lunch the ship moved to the north coast of nearby Fernandina Island. It has a very big population of Marine Iguanas but we were hopeful of seeing more. Upon landing in the mangroves at the edge of a shallow lagoon we walked across the pahoe-hoe (rope-like) lava field. The lava had spewed down the most active volcano on the island and slowly cooled to produce curving rope-like shapes. The lava that reached the ocean was quickly cooled so it is sharper, weaker and a fragmented mass.
The sections of the lava field nearest the sea is now a wave-cut platform, covered by the sea at high tide and also with fragments of shells and tiny pebbles. Some of the highlights were a Green Sea Turtle slowly getting out of the water and up the shelly beach. Lava lizards suddenly shoot in front of you. Many Marine Iguanas gathered in colonies resting and until you got close looked just like more lava.. We also saw Sally Lightfoot crabs, red and black crabs crawling across rocks and on the beach, Galapagos Sea Lions and a young. Whimbrel, Galapagos Flycatcher and a Galapagos heron
A Red Crab
Lava Cactus
A Sally Lightfoot Crab
Spot the Iguanas here
A Green Sea Turtle
A Galápagos Sea Lion and her pup
