Isabela island

Sun. 1/5 - During the night the ship cruised down Isabela Island to about its mid-point and stopped at Urbina Bay.  This area was formed by an uplifting of land in 2008 caused possibly by a gas bubble under the surface and added 3-4 square kilometers of land to the island.  This island was also home to thousand of goats which were brought here by sailors but then reproduced to over populate the island.  A few years ago the park had them all killed or as many as they could find.

During our hike we spotted 3 giant tortoises.  There are many islands where one can find these turtles but this spot is the only one on the tour where we will see them in the wild.  The shells of some of these tortoises are shaped like a Spanish saddle, which is called Galapagos in Spanish.  With a raised area over the tortoises neck, they can stretch out and up to reach flowers on tall cacti.  Land iguanas also populated this island.  Most of them were yellow in color due to the abundance of yellow flowers they eat.  I noticed many holes in the ground which were burrows for the iguanas.  We were told that the males dig tunnels between several burrows which attracks the females.  Evidently the females like a man with lots of property!

Following a talk about the differnt fishes one can find around these islands we went snorkling in Tagus Cove then hiked up the back of Darwin Crater.  The crater is filled with salt water with about 30% salt so nothing lives in it.  Right now the landscape is very brown and dry since most of the trees are lying  dormant until the rainy season begins which should be soon.