Tuesday May 28th
Andrew and I woke just before dawn and went on
deck to watch the sunrise gradually light up the small volcano and cinder cones on the shore as
we rounded southern Isabela Island.
We anchored
for breakfast in Punta Moreno, beside the barquentine Mary Jane (I remember that was one of the boats we could have toured on but her timetable did not match ours; I did not see her set any sails anyway!).
A panga trip showed us mounds of the largest species of
marine iguanas basking on the rocks, warming up after their diving, and our
first Galápagos penguin.
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| Donning our wetsuits for snorkelling off the beach |
On a deep water
snorkel nearby, we saw some giant turtles and a young sea lion frolicking
around us. Some black, longspined Centrostephanus
urchins looked threatening, alongside lots of smaller, short spined green
urchins.
We continued motoring north to Punta Urbina.
Here the panga took us ashore, where we walked over really young volcanic
deposits, with lots of flow patterns and lava tubes formed by the low silica
viscous lava (I was very glad of my hiking boots). The viscous lava flows also
accounted for the flat profile of the shield volcanoes.
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| Diego giving us a lecture on lava formations |
The early colonisers of
the lava were some lava cactus and ferns. The mangroves fringing the shore
eventually produce soil from their leaf fall.
The volcanoes were shrouded in clouds that provide the plants water. The fine cactus spines are adapted to condense the mist. As the lava cools, it forms large cracks and cavities between the layers which collapse into caves and collect water in oases.
Most pools are connected to the sea, so they are brackish and support brine shrimps which are the main food of flamingos. Flamingos start off white then get pinker as they feed on the pink shrimp.
Other pools were full of fish as well as sharks and turtles.
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| Sea turtle nest and tracksup the beach |
After lunch back on Nemo, our panga took us to a black sand
beach for a ‘wet’ landing in the shallows– shoes and socks in hand.
Sea turtles
lay their eggs in nests at the back of the beach.
A giant tortoisem walked straight
towards us along the trail, so we had to give way.
We walked on a sandy trail
past wild manzanilla trees and tall, yellow-flowering hibiscus cotton bushes,
finding some land iguanas and tortoises in the shade. A Galápagos hawk was
perched across an open field. Apparently the hawks and flightless cormorants
have unusual mating systems - polyandrous (many males) instead of the more usual polygynous (many females).
Back at the beach we went for another snorkel along
the shore, finding lots of turtles grazing on the seaweed, completely unafraid
of us. I saw much more seaweed here than I had seen in other areas, perhaps due to
the cooler water and more nutrients, more like Tasmania.
I searched the seaweed
for the Pacific seahorse, Hippocampus
ingens, the only seahorse on the west side of the Pacific, but in vain.
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