Galapagos Trip 2023 -- Day 2 -- Punta Vincente Roca, Isabela Island

CAUTION -- VERY LONG WITH LOTS OF PICTURES

Our adventures on May 13, the second day of our cruise, were near the north end of Isabela Island in the morning followed by a stop on Fernandina Island in the afternoon.  

Isabela Island.  Isabela Island is the large sea horse shaped island.  With an area of nearly 1800 square miles, it is larger than all of the other islands in the archipelago combined.  It was formed from the overlap of six volcanoes.

It is a long trip from North Seymour Island, the site of our hike on Day 1, to our adventures on Day 2.  Therefore the ship got underway shortly after dinner.  We were near Santiago Island by midnight.  However we did not reach our destination for the day, Punta Vincente Roca, until breakfast time.  Punta Vincente Roca is a popular site in Galapagos, but is almost never done as a day trip given the long distance from most of the population centers with hotels.   

Perhaps slightly noteworthy, we crossed the equator twice during the night.  It is the horizontal line near the top of the map below.

Map showing Day 1 gps track (red) and Day 2 track (green).  The horizontal line near the top is the equator.  Punta Vincente Roca (our morning adventure location) is just south of the equator at the southwestern tip of the "mouth" of the seahorse, Isabela Island.  Our adventure for the afternoon was on Fernandina Island.

Punta Vincente Roca or in English Vincente Rock Point.   From the ship we could see we were anchored in a large bay with a very interesting looking cave at one end.

Cave at Punta Vincente Roca on Isabela Island with the La Pinta as seen from one of the pangas as we explore this large bay.

No shore landings are allowed here.  I am not sure there would be anyplace to land anyway since it is mostly sheer vertical rock walls.   In any case we spent the morning exploring the area via panga.  

Below is the gps track of our two trips out from the ship.  Everyone went out in pangas for the first trip.  Following that, we were on a panga that went to a glass bottom boat while some others went snorkeling.

GPS track on a Google Earth aerial photo of the bay to the east of Punta Vincente Roca.

BTW,  in the aerial photo above (taken April 29, 2022) there was a ship anchored at nearly the same location as we were on our trip.  You can see it just to the west of the squiggle of lines in the middle of the image above.  I looked at a blow up of the ship in the photo.  I can't be 100% certain,  but with the same number and shape of windows, the same cover over the stern, etc. it sure looks like the La Pinta to me.

Blow-up of the ship in the satellite pic.  The La Pinta??

Morning panga exploration.  We took off in one of four pangas exploring the bay.  We went towards the far east end of the bay, then worked our way back.

The bay is surrounded by towering rock walls.

Exploring the bay in a panga.  We are in the back on the starboard side.

 The pictures don't do justice to how massive the rock walls are.

Most of the walls are huge.  The panga in the distance may help provide some sense of the enormity of these rock walls.

The area looks barren from a distance, but there was actually much to see.  It is just that most of the animals are so well camouflaged.

Without paying attention, the rock face below looks like bare rock.

 

However, on closer examination, we could see the ledges were filled with little godzilla-like creatures, marine iguana.

Marine iguanas basking in the morning sun.

Marine iguanas.  Marine iguanas are the only true marine lizards in the world and they are only found in Galapagos. Like all lizards, they are cold blooded.  They are basking here in the early morning sun to warm their bodies before going into the cold waters where they feed almost exclusively on marine algae.  The larger males can dive to depths of 10 meters.  They hold on to rocks with their large claws to stay submerged while grazing.   I will discuss these creatures in more detail in the following post on Fernandina Island.  There we encountered hundreds of marine iguana and had to be careful not to step on them.

Flightless cormorants.  We also saw many flightless cormorants (also known as Galapagos cormorants).  They are the largest of all cormorants species, they only exist in Galapagos, and they are the only cormorants to lose their ability to fly.  They are extremely strong swimmers and feed exclusively by diving under the water up to depths of 70 meters!

Flightless cormorant.  Note the vestigial wing.

It is not known why they lost their ability to fly.   It may be as simple as they do not need to fly since they have no predators in Galapagos from which to flee.  Heavier and larger birds with smaller wings are better swimmers and thus may have been favored by evolution.

We were excited to see as many as we did, including later in the day.  My guide book suggested there are fewer than 1000 pairs.  They all live along the west coast of Isabela Island or on the coast of Fernandina Island.  Individuals rarely go more than a few kilometers from where they were hatched.

Galapagos penguin.  Yet another endemic species that we were very excited to see was the Galapagos penguin.  Yes, really!  Penguins on the equator!

Galapagos penguin alongside the panga

The Galapagos penguin is the only penguin to nest entirely within the tropics.  For those on the north shore of Isabela Island, they are the only penguins in the northern hemisphere.  Galapagos penguins are found primarily on the western and northern  coasts of Isabella Island and around Fernandina Island, locations with cooler water.

How can penguins survive at the equator?  There is a unique set of five ocean currents that impact Galapagos, giving it its unusual weather and biodiversity.  There is no other place on earth where cold water conditions regularly reach the equator.   Cold, nutrient rich waters are a tropical paradise for Galapagos penguins.

Ocean currents around Galapagos (https://academybaydiving.com/galapagos-islands-where-the-currents-converge/)

Ocean currents make Galapagos what it is.  The interplay of the currents and their impact on Galapagos is interesting.  The seasonal shift of dominance between the warm Panama Current (January - April/May)  and the cold Humboldt Current (May - December) results in the yearly warm/wet  and cold/dry seasons.  However an even bigger role is played by the cold, nutrient rich Cromwell Current.  I particularly liked this readily understandable although somewhat outdated description, of the impact of the Cromwell Current on Galapagos.

In an accident of nature, the Galapagos Islands sit directly in the path of the Cromwell Current, also known as the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent.  The current flows from west to east across the Pacific . It is 250 miles wide and is 300 feet below the surface.  Isabela Island creates a wall directly in its path, causing most of this cold, nutrient dense water to rise to the surface when it hits the west side of the Galapagos Islands.  It makes Galapagos a marine oasis in an otherwise tropical desert., one where Galapagos penguins among other species have thrived.   

La Nina and El Nino Events.  The other weather cycle that dramatically impacts Galapagos is the existence of either a La Nina or an El Nino weather pattern. 

 La Nina favors marine animals in Galapagos and can devastate the land-based animals (such as finches). 

Conversely El Nino events favor land based animals but are devastating to the marine environment.  The Cromwell Current slows or stops during an El Nino event.  Cold water and nutrients are greatly diminished.  Major El Nino events in the past, such as 1982-83 and 1997-98, caused precipitous population crashes among marine iguanas, seals, penguins, and marine predators such as cormorants and boobies.   Since we are just beginning an El Nino, I only hope it does not turn out to be particularly strong.

Other animals we saw.  As we motored around along the walls of the bay, we also saw brown pelicans, green turtles, a few frigatebirds flying overhead and even a Galapagos hawk (one of the Big 15) high on a cliff above.

A Galapagos hawk keeping watch from high above

Even without the many exciting animals, this is a stunningly beautiful place.

Just before exiting the snorkel cove and heading towards the cove with the cave

Point between snorkel cove and cave cove, looking back from cave cove

No matter where we looked there were more animals.

Marine iguanas on the point between snorkel cove and cave cove.  The orange in the shadows below are Sally Lightfoot crabs.

Next up was checking out the cave, the feature we had seen as soon as the ship sailed into the bay..

Paul and Gwen on their panga with the cave and the La Pinta in the background

 The cave itself is enormous.

A panga at the cave entrance

I don't know how far we could have gone into the cave.  We drove in just far enough that we could at least see the inside.  

A green turtle was at the entrance to greet us.  They are quite large, up to 150 kg in weight and 1.3 meters long, but they were hard to photograph because they only stuck their head above water for seconds at a time.

Green turtle at the entrance to the cave

 There were blue-footed boobies on ledges inside the cave.

Blue-footed booby on a ledge in the cave

At ground level we couldn't tell how the cave fit into the overall landscape.  Once we saw the aerial photo, it was clearer what was going on.

GPS track on an aerial photo of Punta Vincente Roca.  The cave is approximately at the blue dot.  It is clear from this photo that we were just on the outside of the remnants of the caldera of Ecuador Volcano, one of the six volcanoes that make up Isabela Island.  Roughly half of the caldera has collapsed into the ocean.

The cave is on the side of what is left of the Ecuador Volcano caldera and was likely a lava tunnel at some time in the past.

Proceeding beyond the cave to the south, we found even more creatures using the smallest of ledges along the wall.

Sally Lightfoot Crabs (adult above and juvenile below) on a vertical wall

A brown noddy ( a new bird for us) on a vertical wall above the ocean.  I particularly like the structure of the wall.

Once we got beyond the protection of the western edge of the bay, the waves got considerably bigger, so we turned around.

Bigger waves outside the protection of the bay.

Adventure number one of the day was almost over.  It was time to return to the ship for a short break before heading out for adventure number two of the morning. 

 

We wait our turn while Paul and Gwen's panga unloads

While we were gone, our cabin steward had been busy.  I won't show all of the towel "creatures" for the week, but this one particularly made us smile.

 

Another towel creature prepared by our cabin steward

Morning Adventure Number 2 -- Snorkeling.  Punta Vincente Roca is considered to be one of the premier snorkeling and diving locations in Galapagos.  It is on the west side of the islands where marine life is especially plentiful and diverse, but it is in enough of a cove to be protected from the large ocean breakers so one can swim adjacent to the rock walls.

Lots of people on the ship were looking forward to snorkeling, but the Frog and I decided to take the glass-bottom boat instead or what the guides referred to as "dry snorkeling".

We left the ship on a panga, then transferred to the glass bottom boat that was already in place.  There were benches on both sides and the glass viewing area in the center.

On the glass bottom boat

We could not see a lot and I was terrible getting pictures since the fish were normally gone by the time I could get off a shot.  However, it was still interesting to see.

One of several schools of small fish

We could definitely see the bottom in some places whee the water was clearer.

Rocks on the bottom.  I did not get the shot off in time to get the fish.

I did get a picture of what I think is a parrotfish.

Parrotfish

 

Parrotfish bite off pieces of coral and grind them in their strong teeth to extract the algae.  I had no idea a fish could do that.  They are considered important for recycling nutrients.

Although we didn't get many pictures from under the water, the much slower moving glass bottom boat was a better platform for taking pictures along the rock wall.

We saw many flightless cormorants.

Flightless Cormorants drying their feathers in the sun

Although I did not realize it at the time, I am particularly excited that we caught sight of a Galapagos Fur Seal, found only in Galapagos and one of the Big 15.

Galapagos Fur Seal

As their name implies, fur seals have a very dense fur coat.   They generally are only seen in the cooler waters along the western side of the islands.  Even then, they often stay in lava crevasses or the shade of the rocks during the day to stay cool. Their unusually large eyes enable them to hunt to depths of 200-300 feet at night for fish and squid that rise from deeper below.

We slowly made our way back around to the area of the cave.

 

 We saw more blue footed boobies.

Blue-footed boobies in the cave

 

We even caught sight of a nest with an egg, although I don't know whether it belonged to the booby or to the brown noddy that was yelling at us. 

Blue-footed Booby and Brown Noddies.  Notice the nest with an egg to the left of the booby.

In addition to seeing the animals, we could see the snorkelers well for at least awhile.

A panga dropping off some snorkelers.  It is not easy to see, but at the very left of the picture in the red rock is a marine iguana watching all of this activity intensely. 

A lot of heads bobbing around in the water

 

From our point of view, the snorkelers mostly were a lot of bobbing heads.  However, I think I may have found Gwen.

 

 

I thought it might be Gwen in the center.  Even if it isn't, I liked the picture with the rock wall, another volcano in the far distance on the left, and even a bird in the sky.

 It had been a great morning in a beautiful place, but now it was time for lunch.