Overnight we rounded the northern point of Isabela Island, therefore crossing the equator twice.  Here we took a Zodiac tour and found the second species of sea lions, the Galapagos Fur Seal.  Yes, I know.  I did not name them.  The difference between seals and sea lions is that sea lions have external ears and stronger flippers.  That’s why the sea lions can climb high on the rocks to sun bathe.  These fur seals are much smaller than the sea lions we have seen. Note:  I’m not going to get into the difference between “seals” and “earless seals”.  Wikipedia is your friend.

I managed to catch a Brown Pelican just after they dove in to feed.  Their throat pouch is still partially enlarged.

Later we found ourselves in a small school of Pacific Green Sea Turtles.  It is still hard to photograph them while on the surface, but I’m getting closer.  Wait until I can post some video that Silversea’s professional photographer took!

Along the walls and in the water, we saw Flightless Cormorants, Galapagos Penguins and Brown Noddies. I’m always surprised how little of a ledge is needed for these sea birds to perch.

Aaaaand then we saw the feral cat.  There is a human town at the southern part of Isabella, about 60 miles (100 km) away.  Galapagos Park personnel hunt the cats down.  They have only recently finished eradicating 1000s of feral goats, which were destroying the plant life. This cat is the only land mammal I’ve seen here.

This entire cove is made of tuff.  It was made of the ash of consecutive eruptions separated by centuries, and I found the different colors of the layers of ash fascinating.

We were introduced to the concept of magma dikes.  Kind of like the lava tubes of the other day, the dikes formed when the pressure of the magma split the tuff.