Day 6 – Isabella Island, Zodiac and Walking Tour
Today we set sail on the zodiacs again looking for a variety of different animals, specifically penguins. However, the number of penguins on the islands is depleting, and it’s estimated that there are only about 70 left - so it was not guaranteed that we’d see one.
We went to Isabella Island which is actually a rock made from volcanic stone. Either side you can see three different types of volcanoes that are nearby. As we were crossing over the islands I thought I saw a penguin, but it turned out to be a flightless cormorant. We could see these and pelicans in the water catching their fish for dinner. This was also where we’ve seen the most blue-footed booby birds. They were everywhere, flying around together and darting down to catch their food - it was quite impressive.
We also saw marine iguanas, but on these islands they were the biggest I’d seen. I questioned our guide about this, thinking their size might be due to the conditions here or something, but he simply replied “it's because these marine iguanas eat more!”
As we carry along the zodiac tour we finally saw a Galapagos penguin! Then we saw six - five babies and an adult. We were told that they were likely to be there with the pelicans hunting for food, as there were a lot of fish which gave the adult a great opportunity to teach the babies how to feed.
Once we parked up the zodiac we got off onto the volcanic rock. This was the least stable terrain yet, but probably the most exciting - you could even see cracks between the volcanic rock. It’s crazy how different all the Galapagos islands seem to be. While hiking here we saw a Galapagos snake, as well as a few mini lakes in amongst the rock. One of these actually had a white tipped shark in! You could really see it skulking around.
After some lunch, we then went onto another trip searching around another part of the island. Here we got to see some Galapagos land iguanas. These are bright yellow and different to the other Iguanas we’d seen, because of the climate and food they eat on this part of the island. We actually saw two of them fighting over territory. I was told they don’t fight to the death, but do so for pride, territory, and mating. Next, we saw a tortoise, which was huge!
I’ve been walking around seeing different animals and species on the aftermath of a volcanic eruption. If this isn’t an adventure of a lifetime, I don’t know what is!
| A Galapagos diary: day five | A Galapagos diary: day seven |
