ECUADOR, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS: ISABELA ISLAND - URBINA BAY

 Wednesday, March 23, 2022, Morning

Every night after dinner, the crew would put the next day's itinerary on a giant TV screen so we could plan clothing, etc. Our second day would include two landings: one wet and one dry.

When we woke up the next morning, we had this view from our cabin window. 

After breakfast, we motored to Urbina Bay on Isabela Island. Bob took this photo of the Bay later in the day:

Our morning excursion required us to get out of the panga in knee-deep water (a "wet" landing).  The coarse volcanic sand of the beach wasn't very hospitable, and neither was the skull. Was it a warning of some kind? It was also already quite hot and very humid.  

At least one of the locals--a marine iguana-- came out to welcome us:

Fernanda noted that this beach is one of the locations where sea turtles lay their eggs, and she pointed out an area just above beach level where there were many indentations. These are turtle egg "nests," and Fernanda warned us not to walk in that area. There were no signs or anything to prevent people from traipsing across the nests, and I realized why we had to have a naturalist with us wherever we went.

We began our first land excursion with a two-hour trail walk around the Urbina Bay area.  Along with the tortoise nests, I quickly learned to avoid this spiny bush, appropriately called a "thorn shrub."

Not too far down the trail, we saw our first tortoise.

And then another:

It's not too hard to catch up to a tortoise running away from you.

This is a different tortoise. Notice the scalloping on the shell rim.

Next we came across our first Galapagos land iguana. One of the largest iguanas in the world, they can grow to five feet in length.

They don't live in huge colonies like the marine iguanas do, and there are not nearly as many land iguanas in the Galapagos Islands as there are of their ocean-loving cousins.

We were fortunate to see two at once, perhaps a mating pair?

Shards of tortoise shells and bone fragments:

In one open field we saw six to eight giant tortoises grazing like a herd of slow-moving cattle.

This land iguana chose a great place to pose for a photo.

The land iguanas are not even close to being as ugly as the marine iguanas.

In fact, they are almost cute! Almost.

Speaking of marine iguanas, we ran into this one on the trail pretty far from the shore. Look farther down the trail. Can you see the tortoise?

It tried to run away from us.

No such luck, Speedy.

Here is another one--massive.

We also saw a Galapagos lava lizard--endemic to this area. These are Bob's photos.

On our way back to the beach, we saw another land iguana and another tortoise. So much life on these islands!

It was so hot and so humid, and the snorkeling planned for after the hike felt so good. The water was the perfect temperature--cool, but not too cold.

It had been a few  years since I had last been snorkeling (in the Caribbean), but it came back to me quickly and I enjoyed following Bob around. We saw two sea turtles, and Bob got this photo with an old underwater camera he brought along.

There were lots of brightly accented and striped fish. One large fish especially captured my fancy. It had a green body, and it looked like it had been outlined in a brilliant neon aqua blue. I wish we had photos.

We panga-ed back to the Alya for lunch, which included an interesting salad with hearts of palm, a main course of fish (a little dry) and beef (btter), and a delicious pear cut to resemble a rose and drenched in a sweet red syrup.

There was another snorkeling expedition planned for after lunch, but I was still recovering from my bout with motion sickness and lack of sleep, so I stayed behind with a few of the other women. I saw this tall ship as I watched Bob board the panga.