Urbina Bay and Punta Vicente Roca

Saturday morning of our Galápagos adventure saw us put in at Urbina Bay near Alcedo Volcano on Isabela Island for a nature hike.

We had beautiful weather conditions once again -- mostly clear skies, warm temperatures, and just a light breeze.

I finally got a good shot of one of the islands' famous finches.  I just can't seem to get anyone on iNaturalist to identify exactly what species it is!

Right smack in the middle of the trail we had out first encounter with perhaps the islands' most famous inhabitant, a giant tortoise.  The good folks on iNaturalist have been more helpful here, informing me this is specifically the Alcedo Volcano Giant Tortoise or Chelonoidis vandenburghi.

Another dozing beast, but this time not a sea lion and instead a Galapagos Land Iguana.

I had heard there were black bees on the islands, and was delighted to spot one.  It's a female Galapagos Carpenter Bee, the only native species of bee found in the islands.

Even seeing an empty giant tortoise shell was still pretty cool.

I love that I got some foliage framing the funny little face of this giant tortoise, who was contentedly browsing off the trail.

There's a lot of living in that face.

A cetacean skull of some sort had been set up as a somewhat grisly yet also oddly cheery trail marker. Not a particularly long hike, but well worth it for the opportunity to see our first giant tortoises!

After a return to the Isabela II, a short foray north to Punta Vicente Roca and some deep water snorkeling, we went back out on a Zodiac to check out some bird life.  Despite the deep shadows we did manage to get good views of Blue-footed Booby...

...Flightless Cormorant, of which only 1,700 are estimated to exist in the wild...

and my only Galápagos Penguin sighting of the trip!  I've now seen wild penguins on two continents, neither of which was Antarctica. :)

Our cruise ship was dwarfed by the cliffs left from an ancient volcano, but was still a welcome sight after a full day!

Click here for more blog posts from my amazing visit to the Galápagos Islands!