Galapagos Day 3

With breakfast at 6am, the sun had just risen. By 7pm we were in the pangas heading for the jetty at Villamil on the island of Isabella.  Our guide Juan advised us that we should put on a fleece for the open sided bus trip up to the Sierra Negra volcano. The bus was the bed of a lorry with seats and a roof but no side doors - fortunately it went quite slowly and the roads were pretty good so there was no risk of our falling out of the sides.

As we climbed we hit the cloud layer, which only really let up when we got to the rim of the caldera.  Even then, the breaks in the mist were infrequent and partial.  But on the way, we spotted the rare Vermillion Flycatcher (our guide was not terribly happy with its recent renaming to “Darwin’s Flycatcher.  A number of other finch and warbler species were seen in the mist, including the Warbler Finch in breeding plumage that is taking off in the extras but it was definitely a walk on which we needed our waterproofs even though it never really rained.

In the afternoon we visited the lagoons near Isabella and then the shoreline.  The diving Brown Pelican and Whimbrel with crab a were all taken at this stage of the day.  We then adjourned to a beach side bar at 5pm for a well earned drink as we watched the sun go down over the bay.

Back on the yacht by panga, it was time for dinner.  At this stage of the day we always go through a species checklist of everything that has been seen, covering mammals and birds, fish, plants and invertebrates.  Then a briefing on the next day’s excursions and its time for bed for most of us.