This morning we made the short 25 min crossing from Isabela to Fernandina which at a mere 700,000 years old is the youngest island in the archipelago and the most volcanically active. On the way Ian was looking over the side and saw this 4ft hammerhead shark - wow!
Having been completely off limits to visitors for the last 12 years, there is now just one site accessible to small boats - Punta Espinoza - which is a narrow ledge of lava and sand extending from the base of the volcano to the sea and supposed to be teeming with wildlife.
It was technically a dry landing in that we got onshore straight from the panga but then had to take our shoes off to wade through quite a deep mangrove swamp.
Sure enough there was quite a lot around including
Lava lizards
Sea Lion with pup
Great Blue Heron
Galapagos Hawks
Flightless Cormorant
And a definite orgy of Darwin's "Imps of Darkness"
These two were having a bit of a showdown.
Shore petunias
One of the few places we'd seen shells but of course you're not allowed to collect them.
This skeleton was of some species of whale
Deceased Imp
Our boat was one of the few with a snorkelling licence for Fernandina so after a quick change into our wetsuits we were back in the water again and it was absolutely amazing. The water was very clear and you could see a long way, we saw loads of different fish and then suddenly a group of sea lions appeared and swam around us all, in and out of our legs and generally playing. There was also quite a few turtles feeding on the underwater rocks and Ian and I saw one marine iguana which shot off prettily speedily as soon as it noticed is. Unfortunately we'd decided to leave the underwater camera on the panga, as so far we'd been less than impressed with the results - probably would have had some amazing ones this time.
During lunch the boat moved back to Isabela and to Punta Vicenta Roca, the site of an ancient volcano formed into a bay and two coves all protected from the ocean swells. It has some amazing rock formations and the cliff faces are full of nesting birds, but sadly the weather closed in so we had a rather soggy panga ride and some blurry photos.
Slightly better conditions
Finally the weather improved which was a good job as the next activity was snorkelling and we had the privilege of swimming with sea lions and turtles again - these pictures are cut from a video so rubbish quality
And a few fish
My first ever selfie
