Category: Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, January 2024

Following our snorkeling adventure, the Evolution pulled up anchor and we started making our way down the coast of Isabela Island.  Our destination is Punta Espinosa on Fernandina Island, the youngest island in the Galapagos, at just under one million years old.  The islands volcano, La Cumbre, is still active, having last erupted in January 2020.  The island was named after King Ferdinand II of Aragon, one of the sponsors of Christopher Columbus’ voyages.

As soon as we stepped off the panga we were greeted by this mass of marine iguanas!  They literally crawl on top of each other for shared body warmth.

This is the Galapagos Lava Lizard.  There are 7 different species of lava lizards in the Galapagos.

This lava around this reflective pool in indicative of the islands youth.  Much of the island we visited was very stark, but teeming with wildlife.

The Sally Lightfoot crabs are here in abundance!

We had to get a family shot with the marine iguanas.  Isn’t this the perfect Christmas card?  Nothing screams the holidays quite like the marine iguanas!!

Here is a good example of the game “how many marine iguanas can you fit on one rock?”.

These baby sea lions saw our group and came over to play on the beach in front of us.

Here’s a quick video of the baby sea lions playing in the surf.

Baby Sea Lions video

The very top of La Cumbre volcano is  covered in clouds.  This view shows there is some vegetation on the island.

We came upon this mama and her baby relaxing on the sand.

This huge pelican framed our yacht Evolution perfectly.  Note the crabs in close proximity, making it clear that pelican’s don’t eat crabs.

The beach is a mixture of shells and black sand.  That’s Isabela Island in the background.

Another baby sea lion made his way up the beach in this video.

Baby sea lion in action

While we were on this same beach, we heard a mama sea lion barking at us, alarmed that we might be doing something to her baby.

Mama sea lion barking

The marine iguanas seem to be a mixture of “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and “Godzilla”, and I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see anything uglier than Jerry Nadler.  Ok, it’s still a toss-up.

To offset that previous thought, yet another beautiful evening as the sun sets behind Fernandina Island.

Tomorrow is another day chock full of experiences.  As always, thanks for reading!

 

 

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.

Marine iguana fight!

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!