Tuesday, March 8:  Isabela Island

Isabella Island is one of the largest islands in the Galapagos and we would be starting the day in an area called “Elizabeth Bay”.  We would not be landing on the island, but just taking a tender ride in the bay.  We loaded into the tenders and headed toward the island at about 10-minute intervals so we were not bunched together.  The bay was somewhat protected by two small islands that we went between on our way into the bay.

 Island and Flora at Elizabeth Bay

We cruised slowly into the bay and around the many mangrove clusters.  I think the first thing we saw of interest was a group (flight?, school?) of the yellow rays.  They were all close together, almost in formation.

Golden rays in formation

You may get a little better idea of their movement in this Golden Ray video.

Brown Pelicans are not unusual in the Galapagos, but the one below was roosting in a Mangrove tree and just calmly watched us motor by.

  Brown Pelican in a Mangrove tree

 We saw turtles several times, but this one (below) was the first one.  For as awkward as they seem on land, they are graceful in the water 

Turtle in the water in Elizabeth Bay

Then the penguins appeared.  There would typically be one or two swimming on the surface of the water, probably looking for food below the surface.

 One penguin on the surface, looking for food below

Occasionally they would duck below the surface and take off swimming: they are fast!  This video is an example of one penguin on the surface, then taking off underwater faster than I could track it with the camera. This species of penguin is unique to the Galapagos islands and is the only species of Penguin that makes its home in such warm water.

After looking around for a while we headed back toward the Flora, but made a little detour around a couple of small volcanic islands, really just piles of rocks sticking out of the water.  Another animal unique to the Galapagos is the flightless Cormorant and there was one preening its rather useless feathers on one of the rocks.

 The flightless Cormorant uses its feet for swimming, not its wings.

One more “only in the Galapagos” animal was waiting for us on the rocks:  the Marine Iguana. 

 The Marine Iguana is adapted for eating algae from underwater rocks.

You can identify the Marine Iguana from other Iguanas by the overall gray color and a shorter, rounded, mouth and jaw. 

Then we headed back to the Flora for lunch in the Seaside restaurant while the ship moved a short distance to Tagus Cove.  Our first activity in Targus Cove was a deep water snorkel, so we put on our wet suite, got our snorkel gear, and loaded into the tenders.  It was a short ride to an area close to the very rocky and steep shoreline.  We geared up, got last minute instructions on where to snorkel and where to meet the boat for a pick-up, and jumped into the water.  I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the cool water was with the wet suit to protect me.  (I didn’t realize it, but I was having problems with my waterproof camera, so I have no photos of my own from this snorkel.)  We very quickly spotted a large sea turtle… then another one.  They didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence and just went about their normal activities. 

 One of the turtles in Tagus Cove (F)

At one point, I was watching a large school of medium sized fish when they suddenly scattered in different directions and a sea lion came flashing through the void created by the scattering fish.  Shortly after that, I spotted a black-tip shark slowly cruising among the other fish, seemingly being ignored.  There was not any colorful coral or such, only rocks and dark sand, so the visibility was not great.  We saw another couple of turtles and some people spotted penguins in the water, but we missed them.  After about 40 minutes we spotted our tender, swam over to it, and climbed aboard.  We were soon on our way back to the Flora.

After getting out of our swim suits and into dry clothes, our second activity for the afternoon in Tagus Cove was a short sightseeing ride on a tender, followed by a hike up to see Darwin’s Lake. We climbed aboard a tender and motored over to the same area where we had snorkeled while keeping an eye on the weather.

  The clouds definitely indicated some threatening weather.

As we approached the rocky shoreline, a light rain started falling, but not enough to cause us a significant problem.  The first things we spotted were some Blue Footed Boobies, and they are always fun to look at: they just look a bit “goofy”.

A couple of Boobies looking for shelter from the rain

There were also a number of Penguins.  These Penguins had just come out of the sea water and were up one some rocks looking from shelter from the rain.  The overhanging rocks provided some shelter, but, if they didn’t like the rain, why didn’t they just get back in the ocean?  If you look closely at the photos, the light, vertical streaks are the light rain falling.

Penguins looking for shelter from rain.

There were also some sea lions doing the same thing: seeking rain protection after just getting out of the ocean.

Sea Lions resting under an overhanging ledge.

After watching the Sea Lions for a while, the tender headed over to a small “landing” where we could disembark and head up to Darwin’s lake.   The light rain had about stopped by this time, which would make for an easier climb.  On the way to Darwin’s Lake, we stopped at an area where it used to be customary to inscribe your name (or your group’s name) on some of the rocks.  We found some inscriptions dating back over 100 years. 

Not real old, but reasonably legible

We climbed up a trail and some wooden steps to a clearing that overlooked Darwin’s lake.  Apparently, there was some question as to whether Darwin actually ever saw this lake (he was only in the Galapagos Islands for 5 weeks) but it was rather pretty.

   Overlooking Darwin’s lake

As we climbed back down the trail, we could see a tender heading our way to pick us up.

A tender coming from the Flora

The weather was looking a bit stormy, so we were glad to be getting back to the Flora when we did.

   stormy looking weather on the way.

After a short rest, we got cleaned up and went to the preview of the next day’s activities and then on to dinner.

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