Galapagos, Day 4

Further motoring in the night delivered us to Tagus Cove, Isabela, which is where many sailors have grafitteed the rocks with their boats' names. It is no longer allowed, but there are many, many boats' names and dates written on the rocks. It is a beautiful spot, with high walls and a deep, incised cove. What a beautiful spot to wake. First activity was a walk to Darwin Lake and to a lookput overlooking three volcanos - Darwin, Wolf and Alcedo.We could also look over to Fernandina, the youngest island, and its volcano, La Cumbre. As well as our encounters with penguins, flightless cormorants and sea lions, we saw a land iguana (our first and only wild land iguana) and many finches and some mocking birds.

We snorkelled around the bay.

In the afternoon, we motored around to Espinosa Point on Fernandina, where we walked around huge colonies of marine iguanas. There were many sea lions, including a newly born pup with its umbilical cord still attached. The view across to the volcanos on Isabela was spectacular. We also glimpsed Galapagos Hawks, perched on some of the outcrops, waiting for unwary iguanas.

View from Fernandina of Isabela and Darwin Volcano. Rocks in foreground are covered in iguanas

Whales were spotted in the distance. We had to motor for 12 hours to go around Isabela and back to Baltra to offload most of the passengers the next morning. We crossed the equator twice.