Exploring Isabela Island's Urbana Bay and Tagus Cove

As usual, I woke early after sleeping well. I went to the lounge to get a drink then up on the top deck to watch for wildlife. There were many turtles around the boat, and we suspect that is because the boat had anchored, which may have broken some seaweed loose for the turtles. Breakfast at 7 am included western scrambled eggs and walnut pancakes plus fresh papaya and cantaloupe.

Galapagos tortoise near Urbina Bay

Plans for the day were modified because of heavy waves, so we boarded the pangas and rode to Urbina Bay where we saw a lot of Galapagos birds and many green sea turtles.  The bay on Isabela Island is more protected, and we hoped for a wet but easy landing.  However, exiting the pangas was an adventure since the waves were beating us and the volcanic sand on the beach was very loose. One member of our team, Sharon, had some difficulty in the landing and got very wet, perhaps damaging her expensive camera. After the wet landing, we hiked along a 1.3 kilometer trail where we saw green land iguanas, several Galápagos tortoises and some birds we hadn’t seen before. We enjoyed watching another boat of tourists have the same problems as us; it was quite entertaining.

Our team at Urbina Bay

Back at the Galaxy Yacht, we kicked our sandy shoes off and had some free time to relax. Mary, Cindy, Mark, and I sat up on the upper deck and watch several frigate birds sparring over a place to roost. It was pretty comical. Mary and Cindy also played cribbage.

Lunch was a buffet of red snapper, beef tenderloin, purple rice with walnuts, and fresh fruit. Dessert was flan. Everything was delicious as we have come to expect from the chef on the Galaxy. After lunch we took sea kayaks out in Tagus Cove. We saw several Galápagos penguins, sea turtles, blue footed boobies, flightless cormorants and nesting pelicans. We were especially pleased to have several young sea lions romp around us in the water. We laughed at their playful ways as the older sea lions basked in the sun on the lava shelves in the cove. We also saw a huge manta ray that was feeding in the cove. We were only able to see it because it was rolling in the water, and we had a good view of the white underside. That was quite a thrill.

View of Darwin Lake and Tagus Cove

We returned to the Galaxy to change clothes and prepare for a lengthy hike to Darwin Lake and Darwin’s crater. We took the pangas from the Galaxy to a dry landing spot that was covered with graffiti going back nearly 100 years. A steep path, sometimes with stairs, rose up from the cove to a cinder cone produced by recent volcanic activity on the islands. We didn’t see much wildlife on this trip, but it certainly felt good to get out for a long walk. Our group of 15 helped one another, and everyone who wanted to see the top of the ridge got up the trail. Darkness was setting in by the time we started down the path to the dock, but we did great and got in the pangas for the short ride back to the Galaxy.

Sea lion napping on a panga

After we changed clothes and cleaned up, Willo presented an interesting program on the two species of pinnipeds in the Galápagos: the Galápagos Sea Lion and the Galápagos Fur Seal. He explained that sea lions have visible ears and long front flippers. Seals have no external ears and short front appendages. The Galápagos Fur Seal is actually not a seal at all and should be called the Galápagos Fur Sea Lion. Willo went over plans for Tuesday which included a short hike on Punta Espinoza and snorkeling.

After Willo’s briefing, we went to dinner at 7:30; the appetizer was a sushi plate of thin slices of raw yellowfin tuna. For the main course, Mary had turkey with pineapple, and I had the calamari, and we both enjoyed our dinner. We sat with the three sisters who were cracking us up. After dinner we were pretty tired, so we made our way back to the cabin and were asleep very quickly.