Fernandina is a young island located on the western side of the Galapagos, right where the upwelling Cromwell current is bringing nutrients for marine life.
Today we woke up to the announcement of dolphins jumping, fishing and swimming right next to the National Geographic Endeavour. They simply overwhelmed us with their natural way of living. Afterward, we visited a place called Punta Espinoza, although “marine iguana city” would be a better description. This place has the only nesting area around and this is the main reason there are so many marine iguanas on these several miles of shoreline. We found some resting, sunbathing, eating, and even wrestling for territory. As Galapagos hawks hunted iguanas, sea turtles were also raising their body temperatures on the rocks.
During the afternoon we moved the ship to Punta Vicente Roca off Isabela Island for the best snorkeling opportunity so far. Sea turtles, penguins, sea lions, and many species of fish were part of the show in this natural aquarium. Some of our guest couldn’t resist one last activity for the day so we boarded Zodiacs for a ride along the coast of this particular place. We enjoyed watching different seabirds resting on the shore. A very surprising attraction near the surface of the water was a manta ray filtering plankton. It was so elegant and so large that we were surprised and a little bit scared at the same time.
This day couldn’t have ended better, with everybody satisfied with their experiences. Later on, we celebrated an onboard ritual as we crossed the famous equator line.
