I awoke feeling even worse than I did yesterday morning after being sea sick, but I knew the seas around Fernandina and Isabella were rough as they were not shielded by any other islands, so it could be worse these last few days. We had to get up extra early for breakfast this morning and then we were to take an hour and a half dinghy ride around the mangroves. Seeing mangroves reminds me of the the Bear Grills survival programmes I've watched before. 

Elizabeth Bay- Isabella

You have to take a dingy ride around the bay as no visits are allowed on the land around the mangroves . We got taken to the mangroves, once we were out of the open ocean and into a river like stretch of water, it felt like we were on the River Amazon rather than the Galápagos Islands. We went up the river slowly as there were lots of animals around and they turned the engine off so we could spot wildlife around us. Not long after we got near the mangroves, we saw some turtles near the bottom of the water. It was a shallow stretch of crystal clear water, so it was easy to spot things around us. Sol kept pointing out all the turtles. At first glance, they look quite small from the boat, but looking closer at them, they are actually quite big. The turtles come to this stretch of water, either to rest or to breed. Some of the turtles were just laying at the bottom not moving at all, and some were swimming along slowly next to the dinghy. We went through quite a few of the mangroves for about an hour and a half. We spotted some birds amongst the mangroves and after a while, someone said "quick look here, I've seen an eagle ray"(which is similar to a stingray), so we all looked over board and sure enough we all got a quick glimpse of it, but it moved so quick, we couldn't see it for long . Although I'm glad we saw it in the dinghy and not snorkelling! It was good to see it in the clear water, anyhow. When we'd seen all we thought we were going to see this morning, we started sailing back towards the boat and Sol said look there is a penguin. No sooner did we see it, and it was off again, they do move quickly. I briefly saw it and think I managed to get a far away picture. Then we headed back to the boat, as we were later an planned, we missed our snorkelling session, but we are to have one more snorkel this afternoon. We came back with about half an hour to spare for lunch, so just chilled out until then and had some lovely food as usual. 

Moreno Point- Isabella

After lunch, we were to take a hike around the volcanic lava flow on Moreno Point Isabella and afterwards we would get to take our last snorkelling session on this whole cruise. The black surface at the base of Cerro Azul is dotted with numerous lagoons containing a wide variety of life . The lava flow here is very young and has several endemic species known to be early pioneers in barren lava fields. We took the dinghy over to the visitor site once more and set foot on the island to take a walk around at the landscape. We crossed lots of black lava rocks, some cactuses, and plenty of those small lagoons. I think I preferred this island for the volcanic landscape much more than any of the other islands we'd visited so far. It's so strange to think that these islands are still being formed and that in millions of years to come, there will be newer islands than Isabella and Fernandina. This is all to do with the hot spot that these islands sit upon in the sea, which causes the tectonic plates to move, and thus cause volcanic eruptions in the sea, hence new islands are formed. Unfortunately, none of us in our lifetimes will get to see these new islands, interesting enough as it is. On this part of the island, you can certainly notice that the lava rocks are bigger than the other islands, each step I take across these rocks is one giant leap for me! It's such a barren landscape, it's amazing that any wildlife can survive here, but this they do, and do it well . We walked some more and came to a sheltered pool, like a lagoon, where the water was also clear. Some of the guys went round the other side as they thought they saw a shark. The rest of us walked right round the other way, and after watching for about 5 minutes, we saw a group of white tip reef sharks just swimming around. There was cave type thing that they were able to swim under, this must have connected back up with the sea. You could see them so clearly through the water, it was just like you were snorkelling with them. Then we were also lucky enough to see another eagle ray and a puffer fish. We've seen so much wildlife on this trip, we're being spoiled, but it's been good, i´m not complaining. After our last sightings, it was time to head back to the boat for our last snorkelling session. All I remember is that we snorkelled in freezing cold water and I don't think we actually saw that much, so we didn't stay in the water for very long! We had more open water sailing this afternoon, so I wasn't looking forward to this either. But needs must, we had to get round to the other side of Isabella for tomorrow where we will visit the Sierra Negra volcano. We sat with the other guys that evening until I felt sick again, then we had to retire to bed. I feel so old not even staying up late on the boat, but we have to be up early every morning for breakfast.