Tuesday, January 1 ,2019: Punta Espinoza, Fernandina Island and Punta Vincente Roca, Isabela Island

Tuesday, January 1, 2019: Punta Espinoza, Fernandina Island and Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela Island with Equator crossing.   

It was quite a change to sleep in until after the sun had risen above the horizon.  We were anchored by ourselves in a quiet cove formed by volcanic reefs, flanked by volcanos. Breakfast was omelets, pancakes, fresh fruit and sausages that really looked and tasted like Oscar-Mayer hot dogs. 
   

We made a dry landing on Fernandina Island, where a tiny stone dock had been constructed.  We had to duck to get through the Mangrove canopy surrounding the landing site.  

Almost immediately, we encountered a marine iguana laying on the path and lava lizards just on the other side of the mangrove canopy.  Another was uncharacteristically perched on a Mangrove branch in the underbrush.
    

The trail on this island consisted of sand and gravel paths interspersed with areas of walking across old lava flows. There are many fissures in the lava and areas of collapse.  The sandy areas of this island are breeding sites for the marine iguanas.  

It wasn’t long before we spotted a pair of Galapagos hawks perched in tree not more than 50’ off the trail. They didn’t seem to mind us standing there as they preened their feathers.  They are a medium sized raptor, somewhat larger than an Osprey and very close to the size of a Red Tailed hawk.  The predominant color is brown, and the beak has a black tip.
  

We headed out over the lava flows that spread out like fingers into the water with sand forming the webs between the fingers. In this area, the sand is predominantly decomposed black basalt mixed with about 30% coral and shell debris. The sand is graduated in texture with the finest at the waterline. The texture growing more coarse the higher above the lapping waves you go.  There is a surprising amount of organic material consisting of shells, sea urchin spines and small animal bones bleaching in the strata highest above the waves.  
   

There was no shortage of marine iguanas on this island, with many males doing their head nodding and neck puffing territorial behaviors.  We came across the skeletal remains of a marine iguana that may have fallen prey to the last El Niño weather pattern that caused a lot of mortality within the Galapagos.  This poor fellow looked like a Dias das Muertos character.     

We saw our first oyster catchers on this island, which have an international orange colored beak.  We learned that they are always found in pairs, and sure enough, this one’s counterpart was sitting on a nest just a few yards away.     

There were several Galapagos sea lions on the beach.  One was either playing with or eating a crab. 

We learned how the sea lions and wolves have a common ancestor.  If you take a close look at the tail flippers of a sea lion, you can see vestigial finger nails on the 3 middle ridges.  

There was a cute little sea lion pup, but its eyes looked almost swollen shut. We learned that there is fly that lays its eggs in the eyes of sea lions, causing a parasitic conjunctivitis.  You had to feel sorry for the little fellow. 
    

There were some mating sea turtles in one inlet formed by the lava, and we also saw some marine iguanas mating, so this ended up an X-rated excursion. 

Other animals we saw included Galapagos penguins, pelicans, flightless Galapagos cormorants and plenty of sally lightfoot crabs, including a pair displaying cannibalism because one had lost a part of one claw, and another was chasing it around trying to feed off its stump.  It eventually leaped off the rock into the water to escape his hungry pursuer.     

We saw a Galapagos hawk working on what looked like a storm petrel before it was chased off by an immature colleague.

We walked past a bleached whale skeleton that had been laid out on top of a lava flow by park rangers years ago.  It had a very small skull relative to the size of the vertebra.  

This lava flow was adjacent to a large area of sand which is the main marine iguana nesting site that was featured a viral video from Planet Earth II (https://vimeo.com/224239792) that shows the iguana hatchlings sprinting across the grey speckled sand towards the apparent shelter of the lava flow, only to be greeted by Galapagos racer constrictor snakes emerging from the same fissures that the hatchlings are hoping to seek shelter in. It was creepy to think of the hundreds or thousands of snakes hiding in the lava as we stood on top.  Fortunately, we were not greeted by lava flows exuding live snakes.

Galapagos Mocking birds are keenly curious about humans.

Lava Lizard

Lava Lizard doing push ups.

The trail lead us back to the stone dock, where we reboarded our Zodiacs and returned to the Galaxy II.     We did a quick change into our wet suits, and then used the Zodiacs to do a deep water snorkeling around Punta Espinosa.  

There were huge schools of grunts and surgeon fish, as well as a few puffer fish and plenty of Mexican hog fish and parrot fish.  We encountered plenty of sea turtles, and some very playful Galapagos sea lions. The sea lions are incredibly agile in the water and don’t have any problem with zooming right up to within a few inches of your face mask, and then veering off at the last second. They seem very playful, like an aquatic version of a Labrador retriever.  One even seemed to enjoy playing peek-a-boo with us on either side of an opening in a reef. Swimming with these sea lions was the highlight of this snorkeling session.   

We hauled ourselves out of the water and back into the Zodiacs, which took us back to the mother ship for showers and lunch. Lunch featured a vegetable soup, vegetarian lasagne, fried calamari, asparagus, artichoke hearts, roasted beets, and a radish salad.  

As we had lunch, the boat motored to Punta Vincente Roca, which is a collapsed volcanic caldera off the northwest corner of Isabela Island that is popular with divers.  There were a few other boats already anchored there when we arrived, including a dedicated scuba diving cruise boat.  We could also see a small Celebrity cruise boat, easily identified by the big X on the stack, anchored or drifting in the distance.  Another large catamaran called the Archipel II was anchored close by.   

We got into our wetsuits and climbed back into the Zodiacs, which ferried us to the west end of the formation.  There is a large cave at the center of the formation.  We were told that we might see a sunfish or a Galapagos shark during this dive. Several people did see some sharks within the cave, hiding in little caves in the wall, but nobody saw a sunfish swimming about. We did encounter some scuba divers below us, and huge schools of fish.  There were some huge puffer fish, and a large shallow area where a group of penguins hung out on the rocks, and there were innumerable sea turtles that seemed to be just resting on the bottom.  As we approached this area, one particular sea turtle seemed to be either getting groomed or attacked by a school of king angel fish.     

King Angelfish swarming a sea turtle.

Birds of a feather?

We climbed back into our Zodiacs for a trip back to the Galaxy II for a quick shower and change into dry clothes.  Then we returned to the Zodiacs which took us to the very far east end of Punta Vincente Roca, where a rock formation served as a roosting place for sea birds including Nasca boobies, and swallow tailed gulls.  

Swallow Tail Gulls

Nasca Booby

We then worked our way along the shoreline where falling boulders created a network of talus caves, occupied by Galapagos fur seals, which are actually a species of sea lion.  These fur seals have a more blunt snout shape, and are generally smaller. The males have the appearance of a mane because they have prominent guard hairs in their fur covering the head and shoulders.  

There appeared to be a lot of pups among the fur seals.  What was amazing was that these fur seals were able to climb up the talus boulder field by hopping from one boulder to the next, with some of the fur seals nearly 100’ above the water’s surface. We saw several adults and pups work their way down the talus boulder field and into the water.  There were also lots of marine iguanas, including several that were feeding on algae on the boulders. 
   

We ended up back at the cave where we could see the penguins on a rock, and flightless cormorants on the shore.  A commotion arose as an adult neared the shore.  It was literally attacked by it’s teenage chick, which was nearly the size of the adult.  The chick stuck its entire head down the gullet of the adult to feed on the regurgitated catch.  The adult then tried its best to scramble away from the very aggressive and noisy chick.
  

We returned to the EcoGalaxy, which weighed anchor and headed north around the northern  end of Isabela Island. 

At 5:39PM, the EcoGalaxy officially crossed from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere as we passed through 0 degrees latitude. 

To celebrate this occurrence, members of the crew had dressed up as pirates and King Neptune, who demanded tribute to cross the equator.  Each of us, in turn, was ceremonially turned into various Galapagos creatures on the bow of the ship as it drifted on the equator.  

Lava Lizard Push Ups

We received certificates acknowledging our accomplishment, and then we could head in for our daily briefing for the evening. 

Tomorrow will be a full day with a wet landing, snorkeling, lunch, snorkeling and a wet landing at Santiago and Rabid islands.  

Dinner featured either chicken breast or beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes, broccoli and a decoratively carved radish.  Apple pie was the dessert. 

There was a game of hearts at one table, and Bang! at the other table for after dinner entertainment.