Land Tortoises & Swimming with Sea Lions

We panga’d over to Urbina Bay, on the western side of Isabela Island in hopes of spotting giant land tortoises. Until 1954, this part of the island was underwater; then suddenly a tectonic plate lifted up the ocean floor, and now we can see corals and shells along the trail.

Next to the trail in several spots were large and colorful Galapagos land iguanas, as well as the giant tortoises. These tortoises can weigh up to 700 pounds and can live to 175 years. They like to live around one of the craters at the top of Isabela, 5,600 feet above sea level, where it is cooler and there is a fairly abundant food source. But the crater is not a suitable temperature to lay eggs, so the females travel over 15 miles from the crater to the beach to nest and then back again.

After lunch we navigated south to Tagus Bay, located at the “belly” of this seahorse-shaped island to snorkel. The highlight of this snorkel was the plentiful and playful sea lions. These are not the sloth-like smelly, noisy sea lions of Pier 39 in San Francisco. These are svelte, active and truly playful creatures. They were so interested in us and swam up to us, nearly chest-to-chest, spinning in circles and looking us right in the eyes. It was quite an experience! (A low-light of yesterday’s snorkel was several of us getting pecked on the arm by the flightless cormorants. No blood spilled, but a few bruises.) Another highlight of today’s snorkel was seeing so many penguins in the water — zipping by and floating on the surface!

We ended the day with a coastal exploration by panga. Our Ecuadorian (Galapagos natives, actually) guides are so knowledgeable and patient with our questions.

(Again, we have a couple of fun videos which we will post when we are back!)Read more