Day 7 - Fernandina Island and Ecuador Volcano

 

 
Map of area

Another busy day. We sailed the short distance to the island of Fernandina, which is the youngest island in archipelago. The island is dominated by the Vulcan La Cumbre volcano which is the most active. We landed at Espinoza Point and it was another quite hard walk but we saw Galapagos Hawks, lots of marine iguanas, lava lizards and 3 Galapagos snakes, also known as Racer snakes. Unfortunately my video of the Racer Snake will not upload as it is too big.  There were also some sea lion pups with their mothers. We could see Wolf Volcano, which is on Isabela Island and on the slope there is an area of activity and we could see a plume of steam coming from it. It has been like this since January.


 
Fernandina Island

 
Galapagos Hawks


 
Sea Lion and pup

 
Lava Cactii

 
Galapagos Racer Snake

 
Galapagos Racer Snake

 
Marine Iguanas

 
Sea Lion

 
Galapagos Racer Snake

 
Fernandina Island

 
Marine Iguanas

Marine Iguana going into the sea

 

 
Racer Snake

We went snorkelling later in the morning and saw more turtles and also some marine iguanas feeding on the algae on the rocks under the sea.

 

 
Marine Iguana feeding underwater


 
Marine Iguana feeding underwater

 
Colourful Fish

 
Colourful Fish

 
Fish swimming underneath

 
Colourful Fish

Marine Iguana feeding on algae

Green Sea Turtle


Green Sea Turtle

During lunch we sailed to the northern coast of Isabela at a cliff face that is part of the Ecuador Volcano and had another snorkelling session but Paul decided not to come. There we saw Bullhead Sharks, many turtles, some resting and some swimming, sea lions, diving cormorants and lots of colourful fish.

 

 
Green Sea Turtle swimming very close to me

 
Green Sea Turtles

 

 
Colourful Fish


Fish in the sea

Our final excursion was a ride in the inflatables around the cliff edges to see the wildlife. Here we saw Common Noddy terns nesting on the cliffs, blue footed boobies, penguins, cormorants and also Fur Seals.



 
Juvenile Common Noddy Tern

 
Common Noddy Terns

 
Blue Footed Booby

 
Blue Footed Booby

 
Blue Footed Booby

 
Sea Lions

 
Galapagos Penguin

 
Flightless Cormorants

 
Flightless Cormorant 

Common Noddy Terns


Common Noddy Terns


Galapagos Penguin

Sea Lions playing in the sea near the boat

Just before sunset, we crossed the equator, from the south to the north. The crew put on a celebration for us and we were given a certificate in exchange for an imitation of one of the Galapagos creatures. I imitated a Flightless Cormorant and Paul imitated a Sea Lion. We were all invited to the bridge with the captain who recorded the moment we crossed the equator and the rest of the crew who were dressed as pirates and we were given pirate clothes as well and a very nice spicey hot drink to celebrate. The time spent in the northern hemisphere will be short as we are just going around the north tip of Isabela before landing on Santiago Island tomorrow which means we will again cross the equator from north to south in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

 

 
The point where we crossed the equator

 
Karina, one of the crew, dressed as a pirate

 
The crew dressed as pirates



 


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