Isabela

Manta Rays!!!!!!

Well, it happened again.  Just when I thought the diving couldn’t get any better, we jumped into the water at Isla Tortuga, a small and beautiful islet near Isabela.  Bobbing on the surface, waiting for the other divers to enter the water, I looked down into the deep blue and realized we were atop a small group of very large manta rays.  I must have swallowed a quart of seawater in my excitement to relay the information to the rest of the group.  Too late….everyone else was already looking down too!!  What a huge thrill it was to see these magnificent beasts!!  We all descended, but they were slowly on the move and soon drifted out of sight…..

Our time here at Isabela has been really nice! It is an extremely quiet and laid-back place, and we have really dialed things back a bit.  It has been a welcome combination of relaxing on the boat, enjoying the beauty surrounding us, and exploring the island and all that it has to offer.  The tour boats come and go (today there are 7 – that’s a record for this little place!), but most days, things are pretty quiet around here.  The cruising boats are down to 6 again, as 2 of the German boats left for French Poly this morning.   Sounds like the season is just about to start in earnest, though, as we heard there are 10 boats leaving for Galapagos from Panama this coming weekend!

Tortoise at the breeding center..

Thus far, we have enjoyed visiting the tortoise breeding center here, which is very interesting and well done, as well as the salt ponds where the flamingos hang out.  We’ve also taken the tour to the Tintorellas, where it was fascinating to watch the marine iguanas bury their eggs.  There must be thousands of them of all ages amongst these tiny volcanic islets, and being breeding season, the females were busily digging, sand flying in all directions, as they worked hard to excavate the burrows to incubate their eggs.  The frigate birds were having a hay-day, too, as any partially or poorly constructed nests were pillaged by them.  It seems everywhere we look here, nature and the cycle of life is in your face….

Iguana taking a break, but still guarding her burrow…

Iguana digging burrow for her eggs….Sand flies everywhere!

Beautiful calm lagoons at Los Tuneles…

We also took the boat ride to snorkel the Tuneles, a highly recommended tour from other cruisers.  The formations were created by a huge lava eruption that built up a field of lava and created lava tunnels.  Over time, the whole area was encroached upon by the sea, thus creating the quiet little lagoons, pools,  and arches that make this area so unique.  It was a bit of an adventure riding in through the breaking surf to reach the tuneles, and we were grateful we had such a skilled pilot!  The lagoons themselves are a virtual nursery and home to many creatures, not least of which were ginormous marine turtles.

Many marine turtles swim peacefully through the arches and lava formations

  Really, we’ve seen a lot of turtles, but I don’t believe we’ve seen any as big as these were…..They must have been 5’ across the carapace at least.  The guide estimated that the largest of them was probably around 60 or 70 years old!  After doing a snorkel through some of the lagoons, we reboarded the tour boat and were taken back out through the surf to a second site where we snorkeled to see white-tipped reef sharks sleeping.  There were lots of them, tucked up under the various rocks and ledges, some resting on the bottom, and some swimming about.  Really, a very nice day!

The other cruisers here seem to feel the vibe of the island, and everyone is pretty mellow.  We’ve had one cruiser get together ashore for sundowners, and a bunch of us got together and hired a taxi to take us up to a local farm to get fresh produce.  Tomatoes picked ripe, right off the vine…..Doesn’t get any fresher than that!  This Friday we plan to return to the farm again, and then the group of us will have dinner at a special restaurant up near the farm that is supposed to be exceptional.

Isla Tortuga, inside the caldera, during our surface interval

Which brings us right back to Isla Tortuga and the diving……Oh my goodness…..Our dive at Isla Tortuga was nothing short of spectacular!! The island itself is pretty special…..It’s actually the caldera of an ancient volcano, and rises steeply out of the blue sea.  The wall we dove is the outside of the caldera, and after the recent rains we’ve had, is covered in beautiful greenery.  The greenery and rocks are speckled with thousands of birds…..Blue-footed boobies, lava gulls, tropic birds, noddies, and frigate birds.  Many of the male frigates had their pouches inflated and looked like big red flowers amongst the shrubs.  Really quite breathtaking!  And when we approached the isle, we were greeted by a group of 4 bottlenose dolphins, playing in our wake and all around the boat…..A good omen!

Yes, you’re adorable, but do you mind? You’re blocking my view of the rays….

Anyway, back to the dive…….After the mantas left us, we encountered huge schools of thousands of fish, massive marine turtles, hammerhead sharks, sealions blowing bubbles in our masks, spotted eagle rays, and well, pretty much everything you would ever want or hope to see on a dive.  Our dive guide spotted a whale shark in the distance, but the rest of us behind him couldn’t quite make it out….utterly incredible!  And, as luck would have it, while we were hanging for our safety stop, several other mantas drifted below us, one of which we all estimated had to be at least 15 -20’ wide.

A graceful school of Spotted Eagle Rays flies by

We took our surface interval motoring around towards the inside of the caldera and watched the birds.  Julio, our pilot put out a line for tuna and trolled while our dive guide, Paco, put out a kite and filmed the  isle and scenery for the Park Service with his GoPro…..Fun stuff!  We all agreed that we needed to just repeat the first dive, so that we did.  Unfortunately, the tide had turned and this second dive was a lot of work!  But, we did have a nice dive, with many interesting fish and lots of turtles, and were passed by a school of 10-15 spotted-eagles rays.  It probably would have been impossible to duplicate the first dive.  We speculated later that we had done our first dive right at slack water and that is perhaps why we saw as much as we did, but who knows.  In any event, what an amazing day!  To top it off, Julio managed to catch a couple of nice yellow-finned tuna while we were diving, and so gave one to us (Andy and Sue, our dive buddies on Spruce, and us) to share.  Wow…..just wow……

Even more gorgeous up close….

So, because we are gluttons for punishment, we’ve booked another dive tomorrow with Julio and Paco.  Spruce is coming again, but this time we’ll be joined by Cindy from Bravo.  It’ll be a different site, so who knows what we’ll see.  No matter…..But I’m dreaming about whales!! 

Sunset at Isabela….These colors are true – no photoshop here!!

(Note about photos:  The 1^st photo of the manta ray is totally lifted off the internet…..No one got a picture, but I wanted to share the thrill of these creatures.  All other underwater pictures were taken by Andy aboard the s/v Spruce, who generously shared them with us.  The rest are mine  🙂