I was up sooo early, 5.30am does not really exist, does it?

Because we have had a couple of abortive days, today will be ram packed with activities. Breakfast is at 6.45, then off the boat in the pangas at 7.30 for a walk at Urbino Bay on Isabela Island.

Hmm, some b*****'s pinched my lime green flippers!! Is nothing sacred??


 There were a couple of stay at homes, Mido obviously and Sue, so off we went waving goodbye to them. I took a couple of photos of the boat as we left. Once onshore it was clearly very volcanic, big black lava boulders and black coarse sand. It was a turtle nesting beach so we had to be careful where we trod. There was a turtle just scrabbling its way down to the ocean  -  I'm not sure whether it had been laying eggs or not.

The track was pretty sandy to start with and at the first corner we came face to face with a giant tortoise who was blocking the path. He was grazing on the succulents and we were unable to pass due to the two metre rule (you are not allowed to get closer than two metres to anything with a pulse, apart from a fellow human). Eventually he moved to one side and we were able to pass slowly, one at a time. He had a big hiss at guide Marie but did not bother with the rest of us. We all took some close up photos, then disaster....

My camera said its memory was full. Time to delete my photos from the first part of the week. I tried several times and then realised that I had forgotten to remove the memory card from the card adaptor and put it back in my camera! Doh !! So the available memory was about five photos on the camera's memory. What an idiot! So no photography this morning then.

Well, this tortoise was the first of many. Once past the first one, there were three more. A bit further on we came face to face with the rear end of another huge tortoise. We stopped and eventually followed him along the path. Then, coming the other way was an even larger tortoise. We stopped a la Attenborough to observe what would happen....

Tortoises don't have teeth but if they had, they would have been gnashed. The newcomer bared his gums at the other one who turned tail and shambled off, quickly (for a tortoise!) pursued by the victor, who seemed intent on seeing him off his patch. We tagged along behind. They were oblivious of our presence. Eventually they waddled off away from the main path and we continued on our way.

Our next encounter was with a young land iguana. He did not have the strong yellow colour  that most have, because he was shedding his skin, which is their way of getting rid of parasites. He got a bit hissy too as we passed by!

By this time the path was getting a bit rocky and I was quite surprised to feel a little hand slip into mine. It was Poppy. We held hands all the time, I told her that her job was to make sure that I didn't fall over. She took her job quite seriously. We came across more land iguanas, these were over a metre long and a lovely orangey yellow colour. You could tell they were males as they had big crests on their necks, if only my camera was working!

Land iguanas and marine iguanas are mostly recognisable by the shape of their tail. Land iguanas have a rounded, circular tail, whereas marine iguanas have a flat tail.

We saw another three tortoises and a couple of big empty shells whose owners had passed away at that very spot. The authorities do a post mortem from sample cells to make sure they did not die from any infectious diseases.

Meanwhile Poppy and I are having an earnest discussion about horses. Bless her, she is only six but is already saving up for her first pony!

We spotted a great blue heron, yellow warbler, several Galapagos mocking birds and lots more iguanas. 

All along the path were enormous corals which had been abandoned as the island, being volcanic,  had  continued to uplift out of the sea, creating a new shoreline as it grew and pushing the old shoreline inland. Check me out, Mrs Geology!

The going got very tough as we reached the seashore. We had to climb over enormous rocks, only to find a sleepy iguana in the way of our descent, remember the two metre rule! We had to find alternative routes or pass by as far away as possible. So far, I feel I have coped quite well with the inhospitable terrain despite my rheumatoid arthritis. I do get pretty tired though.

The idea was that when we got back to the beach, we would be able to go swimming and snorkelling off the beach. This proved impossible as the waves were crashing in, there were some evil looking rocks and the undertow was too strong for me. And anyway, I was still sulking about the flippers!! I would really have needed them by the rocks to help with my feeble leg flapping and keep me away from the jagged lava.
 
I decided on plan B which was to get back in the panga and return to Mary Anne for a beer!

Lunch was wonderful today, very tasty and we all fell into a little doze as the ship changed position to a new bay for deep water snorkelling. Once again the non swimmers and the poorly ones are left on the boat. I hadn't realised that poor Sue had fallen down the steep stairs and hurt her leg which was why she didn't come this morning.

This afternoon was amazing.

After lunch, once we reached Punto Espinosa on Fernandina Island, the snorkellers went off to do their thing. Once again, non swimmers are not catered for but to be honest my poor old joints welcomed the rest. 

On their return it was a quick turn around for them and we went back out for yet another two hour walk on the lava via the pangas. This was a dry landing and good strong walking shoes required to cope with the unforgiving black lava.

As we stepped off the panga we were greeted by the sight and farmyardy smell of a colony of marine iguanas. It was very difficult not to walk on them, there were so many. They are like small dinosaurs and every now and then, they blow streams of snotty sea water out of their noses!  Most attractive!

As the tide was in we had to do some very precarious balancing on mangrove stems to get across a small inlet that would have been passable at low tide. Then it was out into the dramatic landscape of the lava beds. The black solidified lava is extensive on these young islands. Everywhere you turn there are large brooding volcanoes looming over the landscape, often shrouded by clouds. The marine iguanas and lava lizards are everywhere. We came to a piece of seashore where a family of sealions were cavorting around in the water. They are such lovely creatures, I think they are probably my favourites.

Moving across the lava requires your undying attention or you will trip or fall down a deep crevice. It is very hard on the feet and every joint of my feet and toes were throbbing by now. The permissable routes are marked out by black and white posts but how you actually get from A to B is down to you.

We came to a tidal lagoon where there were lots of sea turtles resting. These were big ones, probably about 2 to 3 feet from front to back. They come to the lagoon to mate, rest and hide from sharks.

From here we retraced our steps and went on a snake hunt. I have to say, I was expecting to see something a little bigger! It was fine though because they're not my favourite, I prefer things with legs! It was dark brown and a bit of an overgrown earthworm really. They are constrictors but obviously not any threat to us, but if you are a lava lizard, you'd better watch out!

Then it was on to the shore line and the many, many sea lions and marine iguanas. We were practically tripping over them, they were very hard to avoid. The iguanas were all digging burrows for nesting and egg laying, with a few hissy turf wars going on!

 The sea lions look sleek, glossy and black when they come out of the sea, but as they dry they turn a gorgeous honey brown. The males are very bossy and territorial and the females do not tolerate any babies that aren't their own. A lot of the babies had bad eyes due to being infected by fly larvae and Marie said that these would eventually become blind and die. So sad  - mother nature at her cruellest.

We had to scurry back to the panga as the sun was going down and we have to board the Mary Anne in daylight  - rules is rules!

Dinner this evening was under the stars and apart from the damned mozzies it was a great end to an amazing day.