Cruising down the coast of Isla Isabela just before sunrise, straight ahead of us was a pod of perhaps fifty or a hundred Common Dolphins swimming north and occasionally jumping clear of the water. The ship turned lazily to follow them for a while before heading back south down the channel between Isla Fernandina and Isla Isabela. It was a beautiful morning with a mill-pond sea and light pink clouds sitting atop Volcán Ecuador behind us and Volcán La Cumbre off to starboard. Sea Lions watched the ship inquisitively, more dolphins rode our wake, and shoals of Mullet jumped as flocks of Storm Petrels, Boobies and Pelicans dived hungrily amongst them.
We anchored in Urvina Bay on the central western shore of Isla Isabela, the largest island in the archipelago, occupying 58% of the total land mass. We landed on a steep lava-sand beach and walked inland over an area of volcanic detritus that was uplifted from the sea in 1954. All of the green shrubs and small trees here have grown up since then courtesy of the cloud effect from the nearby Volcán Alcedo. Galápagos Giant Tortoises live and breed here although we only saw two small ones – they are the Alcedo subspecies with the wonderful name Geochelone elephantophus vandenburgi. It is also a breeding ground for the dirty-yellow Marine Iguana, which grows up to a metre in length, and we found three large adults along our path.
Afterwards I walked and clambered along the beach, having to be very careful not to step on the many jet black Marine Iguanas lying on the warm sand looking just like lumps of lava rock. Pelicans and a single Striated Heron stood on the rocks waiting for lunch to appear, penguins swam in and out of the tide pools, and right at the end a solitary Flightless Cormorant sat in the middle of the beach doing absolutely nothing.