Galapagos day 3

On Monday it was an early rise for a panga ride to shore.  Urbina Bay is directly west of Isabela's Volcano Alcedo, where we made a hard, wet landing with high waves.

The panga driver timed the waves hitting the shore and we had just seconds to jump off the panga and climb up the shore before we would be swept back out.

With Rafael as our guide, we hiked as he told us about various plants, trees, and birds.  We saw the Galapagos mockingbird, yellow warblers and land iguanas.

Rafael was calling the birds...and they answered back!

And then we came upon some really big iguanas.

Just before the end of the hike we saw the large tortoise indigenous to the island.

It was then back on the panga with a tough embark and then breakfast on the yacht.

Only a few managed to climb into the panga at a time.  It took several trips back to the shore to get everyone back on the yacht.

While sailing to our next destination, a blue whale was spotted.  Once again Rafael was extremely excited that we were able to see it.  He estimated that it was 80-90 feet long.

It was then time for another snorkel session. On the way to the snorkeling spot, we came across a penquin.

Ready to snorkel, and the water was clear....what we saw was amazing.

In the afternoon we took a panga ride along the coastline of Tagus Cove on Isabela Island.  We had a lot of "birders" on this cruise and they were most excited to see all the different kinds of Galapagos birds.  

Then we went ashore and hiked up 132 steps to see the view of both Targus Cove and also a lake in the cauldron of the volcano cone.

At the foot of the stairs on the dock there was a cormorant nesting.  She didn't seem to mind all the foot traffic going by.

The graffiti was put on the rocks by whalers of long ago. They would paint or carve the name of their ship and date.

Views of Targus Cove

 The lake at the top of the volcano.

After our hike, the panga motor would not keep running so another panga was sent to us from the yacht.  We then rode along the coast in search of a penquin sighting.

We found some so mission accomplished.  We were now late in returning to the yacht and saw that it had already brought up the anchor and started out of the cove.  We intersected it and stuck our thumbs out to hitch a ride.

And then it was another beautiful sunset in the Galapagos.

The next morning we start snorkeling with sharks at 6:45 am!