April 30 – Isla Isabela, Isla Fernandina

At Punta Vicente Roca on Isla Isabela, we started the day with a panga (zodiac) ride along the lava cliff face of the remnant volcano caldera.

Punte Vicente, Isla Isabela

We spotted blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas and flightless cormorants as well as sea lions and sea turtles. Finally, we spotted some Galapagos penguins, the northernmost species of penguins.

Penguins, sea lion, marine iguanas

Cutting across the crater and into open water, we saw a ray leap into the air! Then back in along the other arm of the crater to see more marine iguanas, sea lions, sea turtles and cormorants.

This was followed by a snorkel off the panga along the cliff wall and across a cave opening, then into a small inlet. The wall was beautiful with purple fan corals, orange sponges and sea anemones. We saw a large sea turtle with surgeon fish cleaning it. We also got close to blue-footed boobies perched on the cliff wall above us. We saw a cormorant dive and hunt, proving that flightless though they may be, they are quite graceful under water.

In the inlet, a sea lion pup and the penguins dove in and joined in the romp. Kevin, especially, made friends with the sea lion pup encouraging it to mimic his loopy behavior. The poor pup actually cried when Kevin had to get back into the panga. Maybe Kevin did too.


The captain interrupted our delicious lunch to point out the large pods (50 to 100 or more) common dolphins leaping in the water in front and along the boat! Needless to say, the dining table cleared as we scrambled forward to watch the amazing site. Just as this was seeming a little routine, Biti spotted a blue whale. There was a blow, followed by surface activity then, eventually, flukes and a dive. Wow!

Flooded trail

The afternoon hike at Punta Espinosa on Isla Fernandina was supposed to be a "dry foot" landing and the landing was. Unfortunately, we arrived at high tide and the path through the mangroves was flooded.


Finally getting to the point, we experienced our only encounter with other groups of tourists and had to wait our turn on the trail. We even saw one tourist with a bigger camera lens than Martin's.

Marine iguanas

The path led us out onto some rough aa lava, then onto a lava point. Here was a huge colony of marine iguanas. Most of them were trying to avoid the sun and the hot lava in the shade of a mangrove tree.

Flightless cormorant

We got our best look at the flightless cormorant here as well. These birds have lost the ability to fly, diving from the surface to catch their food under water.


There were lots of sea lion pups in pools, playing, lounging in the sand. In a pool, one pup played with a stick, one learned to blow bubbles under water and two wrestled and played with each other.

Mariley, Laura, Bob & John

We also encountered three seemingly neglected and quite thin pups. Bitinia said that sometimes the moms leave for several days to feed and sometimes the pups don't survive. It was very difficult for Laura to leave them as we found them.


On the way back to our wet "dry" landing, we finally saw a Galapagos snake, much to Eva's dismay.

Pedro, our chef, definitely teased us on our return with the overwhelming aroma of chocolate - dessert that night was a fantastic "lava cake".