February 13

Day 6:  February 13

Elizabeth Bay / Urbina Bay.  Pay a morning visit to Elizabeth Bay which offers amazing bird and marine life viewing opportunities.  Head out on the pangas and explore the shallows and mangroves to look for sea turtles and penguins.  Visit Urbina Bay, located at the base of the Alcedo Volcano.  Hike the trail for a chance to see land tortoises in the wild, watching for land iguanas along the way.

Elizabeth Bay Panga Ride.  Head out by panga to explore, keeping an eye out for wildlife hiding among the mangroves.  Search for marine turtles, rays, and flightless cormorants in the sheltered waters.  Also spot blue-footed boobies, penguins, and pelicans feeding on the abundant marine life.

Urbina Bay Visit.  Visit Urbina Bay for a unique walk among a massive marine reef that was raised out of the water in 1950 during an uplift.  See "sculptures" of dried coral and other ocean formations while touring the area on foot.  Urbina Bay also offers great opportunities to see land iguanas that have astonishingly yellow skin, flightless cormorants, land tortoises, as well as marine turtles and rays.  

A bit later start today.  Breakfast at 7, to the dinghies at 8.  

Elizabeth Bay info from Moon Guidebook:  Elizabeth Bay is on the west side of the island, at its "waist".  It has no landing site, so it can only be explored by panga.  There are small populations of flightless cormorants and marine iguanas in the bay.  The marine iguanas here are comparatively big, munching themselves to a healthy size on the abundant supplies of algae.  Farther in is a set of shallow lagoons where you can see rays, turtles, and, occasionally, white-tipped sharks.  The panga then heads out to some rocky islets called Las Marielas, where there is a small colony of nesting penguins.  

We did about 2 hours in the dinghies just exploring the shorelines and channels of Elizabeth Bay.  Wildlife included flightless cormorants, brown pelicans, turtles, penguins, sea lions, gulls, and a cat.  Whoops!  The cat does definitely not belong out here.  Oswaldo will report it to the Parks Service.  Good luck to them to ever track it down.  I got a few pictures, but not many because I got squished between two other sprawling passengers and didn’t have any room to turn around.  So – I resolved to just enjoy the moment and try to get pictures from someone else later on; maybe Oswaldo will post some.  Nice area – rocky shores and narrow channels.  Lots of mangrove trees and roots hanging down.  We were definitely not there at high tide.

Photo by Oswaldo

 

Now – we’re moving the boat for a bit before lunch. 

Urbina Bay info from Moon Guidebook:  This bay was created by remarkable geologic activity in 1954.  A volcanic eruption lifted a chunk of seabed, including a coral reef, six metres above the water's surface.  After a wet landing on the beach, you can enjoy the somewhat surreal experience of seeing coral littered with bones and shells of marine life.  Land iguanas can be observed, and if you are lucky you might also spot a giant tortoise or two; the females come to Urbina Bay from Volcan Alcedo to nest.  Along the shoreline, flightless cormorants, blue-footed boobies, and penguins can often be seen, and there are rays and sea turtles in the bay.  

At 2 we jumped into the dinghies for a snorkeling outing.  As soon as I jumped into the water I saw a huge sea turtle.  The first of many.  So amazing!  We were in the water for about an hour.  The turtles were definitely the highlight of the show, but lots of other fish as well – some that we hadn’t seen before.  I hope I’m able to get pictures from someone.  Again - lots of videos posted but no stills.

Back to the boat, snack, shower, and then time for a hike.  We motored back to the same area where we had been snorkelling.  After carefully avoiding the nests of the sea turtles and looking at the skull of a pilot whale, we headed inland.  It didn’t take long before we saw our first giant tortoise.  Many more to follow…..  Apparently it’s breeding season; there were lots of nests in evidence.  After breeding season they migrate back up toward the volcano.  At their speed I can’t imagine how long that journey takes!  All of these giant tortoises are wild; this particular species were never hunted so they have always thrived on their own. 

Photo by Oswaldo

Photo by Oswaldo

We also saw one yellow iguana, three Galapagos hawks, mockingbirds, and finches.  The small birds move so quickly that it’s hard to take pictures of them.

Photo by Oswaldo

Photo by Oswaldo

Another successful day.  We’re moving again before dinner.  Still going up the coast of Isabela Island.  Time for briefing and dinner………….  Every briefing Oswaldo encourages us to go up to the top deck for evening star gazing.  But – it’s been pretty cloudy every night (and day), so not much success with that so far although some folks did say that after some searching they did see 3 stars.