About half of the island visits involve wet landings. |
Like the dry landings, you're taken on your boat by a panga (aka zodiac) which holds eight visitors and either your guide and a sailor or two sailors. You get out of the panga in water and walk to shore: when we were there, we didn't have any water much deeper than lower calf, but some of the guidebooks seem to mention much deeper water, even at places we visited. |
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As with dry landings, the crew members/guide will help you off the boat as much as you need: and will help you to get back on board again. At some beach sites, you could do a wet landing in bare feet, but at others you need to wear adventure sandals. Our guide, Silvia always told us in our evening briefing what footwear we should wear for each activity the next day, and I would hope that that practice is universal. |
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The geological interest at Isabela's Urvina Bay is that the marine reef just offshore was uplifted 4 metres, very quickly, as recently as 1954.
This provides the rare-for-the-archipelago experience of walking in the middle of a bed of coral. |
Flightless Cormorants (Nannopterum harrisi) are endemic to Galápagos. There are now fewer than a thousand pairs, all nesting on Isabela or Fernandina. |
They must have been able to fly at some time way back in their history, but now they have only vestigial wings, which when held out to dry in typical Cormorant style, look tatty and pathetic. These vestigial wings do not help them when swimming (they move through the water by kicking their powerful feet), but they are thought to help them to keep balance when hopping between rocks. |
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An interesting bug which someone suggested was a cricket.
Can anyone be more specific, please?
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A Land Iguana hole. The 'tail trail' is a dead giveaway! |
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I was pretty certain these are Small Ground Finches (Geospiza fuliginosa), but John assures me they're Medium Ground Finches. The ID really isn't as straightforward as all the Evolution primers made me think. |
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The annual Hairy Morning Glory (the 'hairy' refers to the leaves) Ipomoea adgypica. |
| Punta Moreno (Isabela 1) |
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