Galapagos day 2

On Sunday morning we enjoyed coffee on deck and watched the fog/mist roll out along the cliffs as we made our way to Punta Vicente Roca on Isabela island.

After breakfast we took a panga ride along the coastline where we saw sea turtles, sea lions, and many birds.

The iguanas were sunning on the sides of the rock cliffs.

And the sea lions were swimming around us.

We straddled the panga with our feet hanging over the side as we rode along.

After the panga ride, we all got fitted with snorkels,wet suits and fins and went out on the panga to snorkel with the sea turtles.  

Snorkeling is incredible here as a result of the nutrient-rich waters of the Humboldt Current that bathe the western side of the archipelago of Isabela Island.  However, the waters were a bit rough, which made the waters cloudy due to the stirred up surf.  We were also shocked with the "refreshingly cool" temperature of the water, about 75 degrees.  It was nice to have wet suits on.

The disk on the shell is a tag to identify and track the turtles.

In the afternoon we sailed to Fernandina Island, where we take the pangas into shore at Punta Espinosa, a narrow spit of land where a number of unique species, such as marine iguanas, sea lions, flightless cormorants, herons, egrets and Galapagos hawks can be seen in close proximity.

We split into two groups; our guide was Pedro.  We did about a mile hike which took almost 3 hours.  As we walked through the mangrove trees to the volcanic rock, we stopped and learned about Galapagos lava lizards, Sally Lightfoot crabs, yellow warblers, and....an orca whale!

Pedro explained how whales would push the remains of a dead whale up onto the shoreline when the tide was in as a sign of respect to the lost one.

And then the most exciting thing happened!  We saw an orca from the shore.  The other group got in a panga with Rafael and followed the killer whale as we watched from shore.  

Wait for it......

Mark captured a wonderful photo of the young whale practicing his hunting skills by tossing a sea turtle into the air.

News of this orca sighting spread throughout the boats in the islands and our experience was certainly the talk of the Galapagos.

With everyone back on the island, Rafael took a photo of our group watching the flightless cormorant birds.

We continued our hike on the island and got up close to a sea lion.

 And some Sally Lightfoot crabs.

There were iguanas everywhere.  We saw hundreds of them.

 Time went by so quickly and soon we had to hustle back to the panga to return to the ship before it was dark.

Our panga driver had to carefully navigate the shallow waters in order to find a way through the rocky waters near the shoreline.

We ended our day with another beautiful sunset.

Next day we do a wet landing, which was a little rough...