We traveled overnight to the far side of Isabela Island, to a spot called Punte Vicente Roca. We had a wake up call at 0645 and were greeted by this view upon walking out of our stateroom.
After breakfast we boarded the pangas again for a cruise along the shoreline.
Our guide spotted this “Nazca Booby”…they have a lot of Boobies here! The baby on her left looks like a little fluff of cotton.
We then saw our first Marine Iguanas, the first of THOUSANDS we are set to see on this trip.
They are literally everywhere you look!
The Marine Iguana only exists in the Galapagos Islands. They live almost exclusively on algae from the sea floor. After foraging for food, they climb up onto the rocks to warm up in the sun. That’s a face only a mother could love.
We even passed by some marine iguanas fighting over turf…or in this case rocks. I can’t currently embed the video as the yacht’s wifi will not allow me to visit YouTube, so please click on the link.
We had a Galapagos Sea Lion cruise along next to our boat. We would see a lot more sea lions later that day.
Below is a Yellow-crowned Night Heron.
We entered the cave shown in the first photo of this blog post and I was surprised with how far you could go inside the cave. The entrance almost looks like it’s lit up from below.
The end of the cave has some spectacular coloring, reminding me of our Iceland excursion “Inside the Volcano”. There were plenty of fish inside, as well as a couple of sea lions playing near the back of the cave.
As we exited the cave we saw some Blue-footed Booby courtship in action. Note the male booby lifting his feet up and down to show off their colors. We saw this poor male get rejected by the female…women are cruel in the animal kingdom as well!
Male Booby fruitlessly pursuing stuck up female
Following the panga ride we had our first snorkeling experience of the trip, something that will be repeated numerous times. We saw plenty of colorful fish of all sizes, as well as an octopus. We even snorkeled into the cave I posted a photo of previously. Our guide was shooting video, so I will add that video to the post after we receive it.
Coming up, we visit Fernandina Island, and witness more wildlife!
I hope to go there myself some day.
Hey Chuck, good to hear from you. If you do make this trip, then I highly suggest you use Quasar as your touring company. They have really been excellent to work with, and I’m super picky! Let’s connect some time soon!