Day 7: Isabela Island

Map of Isabela by the boat dock

We walked to the port in Puerto Ayora bright and early on Wednesday morning to travel to Isabela, the largest of the Galapagos Islands. The island is shaped like a seahorse and the plan was to go for a walk and go snorkeling while there.

Two sea lions sunning on the deck.

After over two hours, we docked on Isabela. There are sea lions everywhere on these islands. It seems that they’ve learned to beg from humans. We even saw one trying to steal a freshly caught fish, and a group of three climbing on a boat that was a few feet out at sea.

Iguanas getting some sun to warm their bodies.

On our walk around the island, we saw hundreds, perhaps thousands, of marine iguanas. These animals sun themselves all day until they are warm enough, then dive into the water to find food. They dig holes to lay eggs in, and often challenge one other over who has territorial rights of the holes. We witnessed a couple of pretty good iguana fights. I hope to be able to link to video from Dr. DeMello at some point. For now, you can view my video of some iguanas below.

Restaurant on Isabela
where we ate lunch.

Snorkeling was pretty disappointing. We only saw a few fish, and the water was somewhat murky. I also suspect I took in some sea water that caused me to get sick. After snorkeling we had lunch at the quintessential seaside restaurant, almost like a New England clam shack. For just one hour after lunch, the trip felt a little like a vacation, as we got to swim in the Pacific prior to our departure. On our way back to the boat, we stopped to look for flamingos and we were happy to see a beautiful one up close. I used my binoculars to take a closer look at his beak. It was gorgeous!

A flamingo in the wild.

Unfortunately, this was the last time on the trip that I felt healthy (see my Day 8 post). But I got a good 7-8 days in before feeling too sick, and I hope to be better to fly home on Saturday.