Tagus Cove - Isabela Island
--Pirates HangOut and Volcano Hike
--Snorkeling
big day today ... breakfast at 6:30 and ready for another hike at 7:20am ... we're still on the west coast of Isabela Island .... it has a lot of coastline ... with lots to see ....
map for today ....
View Isabela Island & Fernandina Island in a larger map
dry landing .... we walked past a lot of graffiti and carvings on the side of the volcano, this was started by the Pirates, and continued until several years ago when it was banned, thankfully
we had to coax this Sea Lion to give up his nap in the early morning sun, so we could climb the stairs .... he wasn't any too happy about it either ....
we hiked to the rim of a caldera that is filled with salt water. this 'lake' is 1,000 feet above the sea below it .... and it has SALT water in it ... hummmmmmmmmmm, .... how did it get there? ... a tsunami from one of the volcanic eruptions ... seems impossible, but .... that's what Washington said ... pretty view from up here ... you can see Yolita II out in the cove ....
then we hiked over to the other side, for a view of the most northern end of Isabela ... looking out at 3 volcanos: Darwin, Ecuador and Wolf .... and the lava fields below ..
there were more Penguins playing in the water when we got in and out of our dingy ... and some Flightless Cormorants on the rocks ..
we finished our hike about 9am ... got back and had 20min to grab our snorkel gear for our first snorkel of the day ....we get TWO snorkels today !!!!!!!!!!
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by 9:30, we were snorkeling just outside of Tagus Cove ..... it was pretty rough and choppy; but whenever you are outside the protection of a cove, it's like that. we snorkeled around there for awhile ...
we saw sharks and a few turtles and i saw my first Harlequin Wrasse .... they come in variations of orange, yellow, black and white ... although you may see them around the other islands, they are known best around western Isabela and Fernandina ...
a good example of why these are called YELLOW-TAILED Surgeon Fish .... now that's a yellow tail ...
i also saw this Golden Yellow Phase of a Bacalao, also known as a Golden Grouper .... he wasn't hard to miss .... the 'normal' color is brownish ... i like yellow better :) ...
the plan was to stay outside the cove, but since it was so rough, we got back into the dingys and went into the cove where it was calmer. here there were beautiful Sea Stars ...
many of them strung together ....
Washington took this photo after he turned one upside down so you can see the 'mouth' ....
and a Flightless Cormorant swimming and fishing ...
i feel sorry for the way these birds have to hunt. .....they have no idea where their food is, other than in the water under/in some rock or crevice ....
they just have to go poking their nose in until they find something... holding their breath! .... other birds at least SEE something before they go for it. poor them :( ...
this video shows how hard they have to work for their food .... luckily he gets just a little something .... (i have not been able to embed this for some reason) .... it is on YouTube.... click here on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8gO2KyS44c
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about 10:30 we got back in the dingy to go t the boat, ........
we all agreed this was a great snorkeling morning ... the waters were calm and we saw a lot of fish ... that's me smiling :) ....
.... but we noticed that Yolita II was leaving the cove without us !!!! huh???? everyone was whistling and waving fins ... it was several minutes, but they finally returned for us. since we were supposed to snorkel outside of the cove, they were headed there to pick us up :) ... it was kind of funny ...
back on the boat and we had 20min to get ready for lunch; during lunch the boat sailed to Fernandina Island, the youngest and most volcanically active island of the Galapagos.
the rest of the day continues in Part 2 .....
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