Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove, Isabela Island

Tuesday, February 19

Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove, Isabela Island

Isabela Island is by far the largest island in the archipelago, making up more than half the land mass.  It was formed by the fusion of six “shield volcanoes” and is shaped like a seahorse.  After breakfast, at 8:00 AM, we disembarked for a hike at Urbina Bay.  We set off after changing into our hiking shoes, as it was a “wet landing” which means we exited the Zodiacs in about two feet of water.

The major population of Galapagos Tortoises is on other islands, but we hoped to see some here.  Right on the trail was a collection of poop and we had a briefing on the identification of critters from finding their poop.  Yes, this collection included that of the tortoise.

The land iguanas are all over the place; here’s today’s portrait:

The prominent flowering tree here is the Muyuyo, which has bright yellow flowers:

And we indeed found tortoises:

Back then to the ship, and the boys had a Zodiac driving class.  The adults were not involved; it was probably a good thing.  Ben has been eating as if he is hollow, quite unbelievably, with three full dinners on one night.  Today at lunch he had four desserts, a double serving of ice cream, a piece of cake, and a double cookie: 

After lunch there was a profusion of activity—paddle boards, sea kayaks and snorkeling opportunities.  Dan and I went kayaking together in Tagus Cove, a beautiful sheltered harbor.  The geology is remarkable, with undulating layers of rock which have been laid down as lava:

We came across a female sea lion lying on a rock shelf nursing her pup:

There were huge crab colonies:

Without meaning to, we caused some consternation as we talked and paddled, and without realizing it, far outpaced our group of five kayaks and wound up joining another group which was ahead of us.  No one figured it out until the group we had come up on got taken aboard their Zodiac to go back to the ship and they had two extra people.  Fortunately, all the Zodiac drivers have walkie-talkie radios and they straightened it all out.  There were two choices for the final afternoon activity, an “invigorating more walking-less talking, fast-paced uphill hike” to Darwin Lake, or a Zodiac ride along another shoreline.  Joyce and I chose to sit and ride; all the others took the hike.  We saw a number of penguins on our Zodiac ride.  Galapagos penguins are very small, and very fast in the water, making photography almost impossible.  We did come across some on the rock ledges above the water—the photo is not good.

There is a daily pre-dinner cocktail hour (all drinks are included on this trip; the pina colladas are very good) and at this one, one of the naturalists gave a short talk on plankton, with a live microscopic projection of all the critters in the water she had collected.  Early to bed, as tomorrow we leave the boat at 6:30 AM!