Old land, new land

Day 3 - Isabella Island; Punta Moreno, Urbina Bay

Clink, scrunch, crunch - the sound of walking across basaltic lava.  The landing at Punta Moreno on Isabella Island was on a lava field approximately nine million years old. The lava field was extraordinarily sharp and starkly barren in places.  But life is starting to colonise it; not just in the lagoons formed by lava bubbles collapsing and filling with filtered water from the highlands, but also in the cracks and fissures in the lava itself.

To my delight one of the larger lagoons contained three flamingos. They were a little distant for good photography, but lovely to look at.  The lagoons closer to the sea sometimes have seawater in them as small lava tubes go down to the water.  Small fish and shrimp travel up them, then get stuck in the lagoons.

The walk ended at a little inlet with a sweet little beach  on the opposite side containing two sealions.  One promptly got in the water and swam up and down the channel to see us better. Then we could see sea turtles and a penguin.  Fabricio said we could swim if we wanted to before the panga came to pick us up.  I leapt at this offer;  while the shore had a nice breeze the interior had been pretty hot on the basalt.

I managed to get up close to a penguin and had just spotted a sea turtle when I was recalled to the rocks to wiggle into my wetsuit with everyone else.  The water around the Galapagos is cold at this time of year due to the Humbolt current - though 18C is hardly freezing.  The panga dropped us across the bay where we spent a magical hour snorkeling, watching turtles drift through the water, graze on rocks and be cleaned by helpful fish.

There were lots of different kinds of fish, some with lovely colours and stripes, but not really the tropical display found in other places.  One sealion eyed Ben and I from a distance, but didn't come any closer.  No sharks put in an appearance.

Back on board for another delicious lunch, then two hours of motoring two our next landing spot, Urbina Bay.  This is a very new piece of land, pushed out of the sea less than 60 years ago.  Here we disembarked on a little beach that has sea turtle nests above the high tide line.  We saw three giant tortoises, many land iguanas, cactus finches and ground fiches.  Plus lots of large hermit crabs who did their best to pretend to be innocent shells.

Heading into Urbina Bay

Ben and a land iguana

Land iguana up close

Another lava lizard

Galapagos grasshopper:

Two Galapagos Grasshopers . . .

The problems of a telephoto lense and wildlife that is so incredibly close; you can't always get far enough away to get everything in the shot.

Darwin finch

Everyone liked the hermit crabs.  I particularly liked how their legs fit so well together when they draw them up to go into the shell.

Female giant tortoise, slightly smaller than the males

As we waited for the panga to come and pick us up we watched a penguin fishing in the bay.  It was easy to track his progress as showers of little silvery fish would scatter out of the water and through the air to get away.  He came in very close to the beach, not at all worried by his audience.

The large Sally Lightfoot crabs in the rocks were less obliging for Ben to take photos - clearly no-one has told them that they are protected here - they scuttled away very quickly.

There was a glorious sunset as the catamaran headed west, before dropping anchor for the night at the next landing site.