Cruising Around the Galapagos: Part 3 – Fernandina and Isabela Island
Marine Iguanas, Fernandina Island
The Western Galapagos Islands continued to excite me, despite the incident with the sea urchin…
Fernandina Island
Fernandina Island on day 5 was incredible. Definitely a highlight for many people on the tour. Back to lava rocks, covered with bright colourful crabs, cactus, marine iguanas and a few sea lions. It was a pretty cool island to see.
Cactus on Fernandina Island
Crab on Fernandina Island
Crabs taking turns jumping
The landscapes of lava rocks meeting the ocean were stunning, along with the large amount of marine iguanas sun bathing, swimming and chilling with lava lizards.
Fernandina Island
Lava rocks on Fernandina Island
Marine Iguanas chilling in piles – Fernandina Island
Marine Iguanas, Fernandina Island
Marine Iguana walking, Fernandina Island
Marine Iguana swimming
Marine Iguana with a Lava Lizard friend
Lava Lizard on Fernandina Island
Then there was the sea turtles, sea lions and sting rays…
Sea lion chilling with the marine iguanas (they actually like to play with them)
Sea lion relaxing in the water on Fernandina Island
Stingray on Fernandina Island
Sea turtle in the water near Fernandina Island
And not to forget the blue-eyed Flightless Cormorant…
Flightless Cormorant, Fernandina Island
Snorkelling back near Isabela that afternoon was successful. I had a bit of a break and then tried for a second round and finally was swimming with wild turtles in the open ocean, the odd penguin zoomed past, I saw gigantic starfish, a sea lion coming out of the water just ahead and plenty of fish. It was a pity that was my only decent snorkelling experience. I wish I was a stronger swimmer and hadn’t had a bad sea urchin experience. However, I still had expected the snorkelling to be a bit better in the Galapagos. It wasn’t by any means anything like snorkelling in Egypt!
Back on Isabela for the afternoon we hiked around Tagus Cove to see a crater lake. At the entrance to Tagus Cove you can see lots of graffiti, this is from the early visitors on boats, writing the year they arrived, some were really old!
Tagus Cove, Isabela Island – 1836 even!
Tagus Cove, Isabela Island (view of our boat and the National Geographic one)
My foot didn’t appreciate the hike too much, so I eventually sat down with all the bugs and flies, while the others carried on.
Holy trees at Tagus Cove, Isabela Island
Crater Lake at Tagus Cove, Isabela Island
We had the pleasure of checking out the size of the National Geographic boat (aka rip off) near our boat that day. I was pleased to have been on a smaller boat without families and with more active people. Even seeing other boats I’d considered along the way made me appreciate the boat I was on. The photographs of the boats on some websites must be very old I think!
Octopus as we left Tagus Cove
Note: That’s part 3. I’ve still got at least one more part to share with you in the coming weeks. As you can see it’s a lot of photos to process for each post! Next up we rounded the western side, crossing the equator twice to head on the home-stretch to Baltra via a few other spots!
Amazing!