Over night we travelled throughout the whole night and awoke to a lovely view of Isabela Island. Today was jam packed with things to do and see. Got a wake up call at 0600, had a quick snack for breakfast and then headed out on the first panga at 0615 to Isabela Island and landed at Tangus Cove. The first part of the walk was littered with sleeping sea lions who were really not at all impressed about being woken up and forced to move off the steps. As a present they all poohed and peed all over the stairs! We then went on a 2hr walk up a hill for views over Darwin Lake and the other side of Isabella Island. It was a lovely walk, not much wildlife but that’s because not much lives in that particular spot, but there were plenty of Liquorice trees.. Javier was telling us that the island of Isabella had goats introduced to it and within a few years the numbers had increased to 250,000. They were basically eating all the food of the turtles so they caught a few males, sterilised them, attached GPS trackers to them and released them. Then they tracked them and went out with marksmen and dogs to herd them up and bring them out into the open and then they would shoot them, making sure not to kill the ones with trackers on them. They successfully managed to eradicate goats from the Island.
On the return to the panga from the walk we had to shoo several Sea Lions who had moved back up the stairs to sun themselves. Once back on the boat we had 30min to eat a proper breakfast and suit up ready to go Kayaking. We had an odd number of people for kayaking so I had a single kayak. Having never Kayaked before I was impressed with my self that I managed to get around the whole of Tangus Cove paddling on my own. The wildlife was amazing – passed numerous turtles that swim right up and under the kayak and then alongside you, about 10 penguins that kept ducking up and under the water, Blue Footed Boobies, Flightless Cormorants, Brown Pelicans and thousands of crabs lined the waters edge.
After an hour of paddling we had a quick 5min back on the boat ot get ready to go snorkelling. Two panaga loads of us went out and again, I had the Captain in my panga. We were warned that the water was cold, but seriously, I wasn’t expecting it to be THAT cold. We jumped off the side of the panga and almost all of us swore. It was so cold. Chris got straight back out again and refused to get back in. I lasted about 30min before I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore and decided to get out. It was great snorkelling though. Swam with about 10 Sea Turtles and watched them feeding on the plants. Saw Flightless Cormorants fishing for fish and again, lots of fish like yesterday. But it was just ridiculously cold. When we got back to the boat, we washed all our gear down and then all the women jumped in the Jacuzzi to warm up and we were given hot chocolates and cheese and mushrooms as a pre lunch snack. Then it was time for a long hot shower. And I needed it.
Lunch was yummy – crab salad and fish followed by a really delicious chocolate and Almond tart with cream. We had 1 1/2hrs down time after lunch before heading out on the pangas. We did a tour around Elizabeth Bay on Isabela Island. We went up some estuaries which were lined with mangroves and spotted lots of sea turtles. They were bobbing up and down. We could hear sea lions and then moved right under the mangroves and they were sleeping up on the mangrove roots. We then motored out to the open sea again and went along the shore line spotting penguins and pelicans before returning to the boat.
Tonight’s pre dinner meeting was about Charles Darwin and his life’s work. Dinner was outside on the Al Fresco deck. It was a BBQ and was actually quite pleasant sitting out there.
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