Galapagos Day 3: Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove on Isabela Island

 

We had great encounters with six different giant Galapagos tortoises on our hike at Urbina Bay. Several of the tortoises were on the move, fighting, and stretching their necks out. This one gave me the shot I was hoping for!

What a packed day for Day 3 of our Galapagos Expedition Cruise. Last night we crossed back over from Fernandina Island to Isabella Island. On the menu for Day 3 was four different activities at two different locations on the west side of Isabella. We started with a nature walk into the tortoise filled forest of Urbina Bay, followed by a snorkel from the beach there. In the afternoon we had either a kayak or drift snorkel, followed by a power hike or skiff tour at Urbina Bay.

The wind kicked up a bit in the morning as we jetted into Urbina Bay on our little zodiac. We had to do a wet landing, so our guide, Dries, jumped out in the shallows to hold the front of the zodiac steady, while everyone else did the sit-and-spin over the sides and scampered up the beach. We could go up to much though, as there were many sea turtle tracks leading up to nest. We stayed low and headed to the rocks to drop our snorkel gear for later. Then we headed off into the forest comprising of yellow poison apple trees, Galapagos cotton, Yellow Cordia, and Acacia. Different species of finch flittered around the trees, while yellow warblers provided a flash of color as they flew by. But it was really the reptiles we were after this hike.

This might be my favorite blue-footed booby photo yet. It was standing in a ray of sunlight, with a dark shadowy cave behind it.

After only a minute of walking, we came to our first giant Galapagos tortoise. It was massive. I could envision all three of my kids being able to ride on its back with no problem. The tortoise seemed quite at ease with us there, and I managed to get some great face portraits as it stretched its neck out. We ended up seeing about six or seven different tortoises, as well as a few land iguanas during our short walk. As a bonus, towards the end, we had two male tortoises get into a bit of a turf war. It is as slow and un-extreme as you would expect from a tortoise, but it was very cool to see them stretching their necks out, asserting their dominance. Afterwards the loser picked up his huge body and high-walked down the trail. It was like watching some ancient dinosaur ambling on without a worry, tucked safely in its shell and too large for anything to mess with.

Once we were back at the beach, I wasted no time in changing into my shorty wetsuit and hitting the water. The waves had stirred up the sandy bottom a bit here, so we didn't have the same crystal clear visibility as we did yesterday, but the animal life was still plentiful. I passed a few dozen feeding sea turtles and one very active flightless cormorant on my way out to the outer boundary. Large, brightly colored parrotfish and wrasse skirted over the rocky bottom. Towards the far point I overheard another group say 'shark', so I hustled over. They were talking about a big shark, which I didn't see, but I did get to see a small black tip shark around the same time.

On my way back towards the beach, I noticed the chase boat for the other group I had just left, seemed to be watching something in the water. They called me over and to my surprise it was a large spotted eagle ray. I managed to dive down and get some pretty fun video with my GoPro. The visibility never really cleared, so I headed back to the beach to catch a shuttle back to La Pinta. That left me enough time for a soak in the hot tub, some delicious lunch, and some quick photo work before heading out for the early afternoon drift snorkel at Tagus Cove!

As we loaded the zodiac, which the crew calls a 'panga', my excitement for our drift snorkel was palpable. This was not an option on my last trip, so I jumped at the opportunity today. My brother-in-law, David, chose to go kayaking, and was able to kayak right up to flightless cormorants, including a baby, and tons of sally lightfoot crabs. But, I had done that last trip, so it was snorkel for me!

Tagus Bay is a deep semi circle, surrounded by huge lava rocks cliffs. The cliffs continue down below the water's surface, filled with cracks and crevices for underwater animals to hide. The visibility hovered around twenty feet or so, and the water was quite cold, but we ended up having tons of encounters with charismatic megafauna. I stayed up front with Dries and Cathi, our two guides, and here is what we saw.

Sea turtles were everywhere. I took a few videos of turtles but I was really concentrating on the rarer creatures. I was ecstatic to get some footage, and some underwater encounters of Galapagos penguins! They were feeding right on the surface, zooming around quite quickly. I didn't get a chance to see them in the water at all last trip, so this was a huge one for me. We also had three species of rays: spotted eagle ray, broad stingray, and a golden ray. I had never seen a golden ray before, so this was incredibly exciting as well. We then went around a corner, looking for sharks, but the visibility decreased to about ten feet. Imagine my surprise when a dark form emerged from the murky water coming right at us, but it turned out to be a Galapagos sea lion. Not a bad way to end the snorkel.

We had several ground finches and tree finches during our walk in Urbina Bay. Collectively they are known as Darwin Finches.

Beautiful yellow warblers were present at almost every stop.

This was a male ground finch.

This was our second chance to see the Nazca Booby.

I didn't realize the flightless cormorants had such a bejeweled blue eye until getting closeup photos like this.

Brown noddy in flight.

This is a lava heron. It was stalking the exposed rocks, feeding on very small crabs.

Now the lava heron has a small crab in its beak after a successful strike.

A few marine iguanas were basking on the cliffs.

Nice pose from this Nazca booby.

I was very lucky to see some penguins swimming underwater this trip, but this was the only one I got a photo of above water.

Several land iguanas, and many of their burrows were visible on our Urbina Bay hike. This one had gotten its lips all muddy somehow.

It was very interesting to watch these two tortoises interact. They stretched their necks out, in a kind of competition, before the loser lifted his heavy body and moved on.

It was so cool walking with such an iconic creature, the giant Galapagos tortoise.

This was the first tortoise we saw. He didn't seem to mind our presence, and posed for photos instead of cowering in his shell.

A big land iguana, walking down the path. He continued to walk right through and past our group.

Look at those useless wings. This is a great example of why this species is named the flightless cormorant.

Zodiac tour along the wild coast of Tagus Cove on Isabela Island.

This Galapagos sea lion was feeling sleepy as he basked in the sun on the coast near Tagus Bay.