Six days sounds like a decent amount of time, but when you spend all of that time staring at cool animals or snorkeling, the time goes way too fast. Hard to believe that we only had two more days left. On Friday morning we woke up on Fernandina Island. Here on Punta Espinosa we got to see a ton of marine iguanas. We had hoped to see some sharks in a deep little cove they like to frequent, but instead we saw a sea turtle and more iguanas. This is the youngest island and has some of the coolest black lava rock ever.
 |
| =D |
 |
| See the small cone on the left? That's the ash cone that should be the center of a very large volcanic crater, but half of it fell into the ocean. |
 |
| While going from the west side of Isabela to the east side, we made a quick visit to the Northern Hemisphere. My first time in almost five months! |
I know I have mentioned this to people I'm hiking with, but I wish I'd thought rocks were cooler sooner. I remember all the geology I took when I was in elementary and middle school. And I thought they were awful. And now, I feel like every time I go on a hike, I end up wondering about the rocks and why they are the way they are. They're so cool! On Fernandina, we could see lava tubes and all sorts of cool textures from the lava flowing until it slowly cooled when it met the ocean. We could also see lots of lava cactus, which is one of the first plants to start to grow on the new land.
 |
| Cactus! |
 |
| You can see one of the larger volcanoes in the distance |
In addition to the iguanas, we got to see flightless cormorants. They are native to the Galapagos. They have intensely turquoise eyes and they have lost their ability to fly. Think the size of a really big duck, but the wings of a baby duck. Very weird. They also never go more than 200m from shore and eat small fish and other sea creatures. Iguanas don't have a natural predator here, so most of them die from old age or hunger (in years where the water is warm and there isn't an abundance of algae). Because of this, when you're walking around there are plenty of dead iguana skeletons all around on the rocks.
 |
| Not the best smell. |
In the afternoon we got to check out Tagus Cove on northern Isabela Island. We got to see a large cave that came from a lava tube coming up to the surface. A large chunk of the island was unstable and has fallen down into the ocean. We could also see several flumes coming up along side the tube. We got to see more blue footed boobies and a couple of masked boobies nesting on the rock. There are also red footed boobies, but we never got to see any of them.
 |
| Cave! |
 |
| Cormorant out for some noms |
Our afternoon finished off when we got to hop back into the water to snorkel along the wall of the cave. And a couple of sea lions decided to swim around with us. Didn't exactly want to play, but I think they thought we looked weird. To be fair, anyone in goggles and a snorkel looks incredibly weird.
 |
| A smaller cave from a lava flume |
For our last full day we got to check out a black sand beach on Santiago Island as well as some fur seals. Fur seals are unlike sea lions in that they have two hairs coming out of each pore. They are also very scared of humans because we made them into jackets. They are also nocturnal. We also got to see a couple of sea lions playing. I am pretty sure they are just like dogs with fins. So cute.
 |
| Skeleton of a whale and some skulls of sea lions |
 |
| Gorgeous lava tubes full of water |
 |
| Lava bridge |
 |
| Nappin' yoga |
 |
| I was expecting a majestic penguin dive and got this instead |
 |
| Lion frolicking |
In the afternoon we got to go for a hike on a red sand beach on Rabida Island. The red comes from iron oxide. Here we had a great lookout where we could watch several types of birds fish for food (aka dive bomb straight into the water and come up with a fish in their mouth). At one point a bird accidently caught a poisonous pufferfish. It dropped it immediately, but it kept getting picked up and dropped by other fish until it was clearly dead. We also got to see a reasonably large shark swim along the shore AND a huge school of fish.
 |
| Red beach! |
 |
| Cactus trees! |
 |
| Archway into the ocean |
 |
| SHARK! |
 |
| Fishies! I wish I could remember what kind. But they're tasty apparently. |
For our last snorkel we got to swim with a couple more sea lions and swim over a couple rays. I heard someone yelling, so I looked up. They were yelling "shark!!" and pointing underneath them. Gotta say my initial reflex is to get OUT of the water as fast as I can, not swim over to take a look at the shark. It was over a meter long and a white tipped shark. They eat fishies, and don't care about humans. Hooray!
 |
| More sharks! |
Sadly, the next day was our last breakfast. On our way back to the dock we circled around a volcano cone to check out some boobies and some cormorants. After that, we said our goodbyes and we were back at the airport!
 |
| All that white is bird poo. |
 |
| Heading back to the port. |
 |
| Our lovely boat, the Encantada |
