Day 57 - Isabela:Moreno Point - Bahia Urbina

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Another calm, smooth overnight navigation had us at Moreno Point on Isabela island. I should mention how we get off the boats with the dry-landings. Fabian and Christian who did a lot of the zodiac driving would jump off first and then Fabian would always say “one by one, side by side” which we would all repeat and they would grab your arm and you would grab theirs and they pulled you up. This was a dry-landing onto a massive black lava flow which had big cracks that created mini-canyons. Some parts were quite smooth and looked like highways with big cracks in them. The various shapes were fascinating. After walking over the lava flow for a while we then came across some lakes with beautiful flamingoes which were quite a contrast to the harsh black rocky landscape surrounding. Further along the landscape changed again near the shore and we saw marine iguanas, pelicans and penguins.

We returned to the boat with our normal drink and snacks waiting and at 10:50 was the next snorkeling session which I did not participate in. This was a very exciting session for everyone with penguins and sea lions playing alongside them all.

Once back, it was lunch time and we started a 2.5 hour navigation to Bahia Urbina on the west coast of Isabela island. The trip was thankfully quite smooth again. On arrival we had another wet-landing and we had the choice of a short 1.5km hike or a longer 4km hike. It was a unanimous vote for the 4km walk. Surprisingly, Fabian said that it was the first time for two years that he has done the longer walk because the previous cruises had older people who opted for the shorter walk. I thought Daisy and I were old, so maybe they were even older. It was a very enjoyable walk as we had close encounters with many of the island residents including very cool looking yellow coloured iguanas which we had not yet seen and smaller “giant” tortoises.

On the way back from our “long” hike, the sun was beginning to set and we watched a beautiful sunset as we waited for the daily briefing and another delicious dinner. We are amazed how the chef comes up with a different selection of food every day and both lunch and dinner are big hot meals. After chatting for a while we then had a movie night. The funny thing was that Nicole had told us how she was told about the mystery disappearances of a couple of people on Floreana Island and a movie called “Satan Came to Eden” was made about it, and that was the movie Fabian had for us. I was actually quite sleepy by now and slept through a bit of it, so I will watch it again in back home. Straight after the movie, we went to bed and it felt late but it was actually only 20:10.

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