Overnight we did a very short jump across to Isabela Island’s Tagus Cove.  This was a comfortable fit for the Silver Origin; she could do donuts here using its thrusters, but not by much.  The hike was two hours with a lot of steps, so after yesterday’s long beach hike I chickened out and took another Zodiac tour.  It’s cool how Silversea organizes these so there is always a low-impact option

The cove walls went up a couple hundred of feet (100 m), not quite “cliffs”, and were mostly made of tuff.  The erosion was awesome to look at.

At the top was a Galapagos Hawk, keeping a look out for the careless.

We moved along the edge, finding the usually suspects.  Blue-Footed Booby, Flightless Cormorant, Blue Heron and Brown Pelican.

I’m sure you are astonished that there were Marine Iguana and Sea Lions here as well.  There was a little alcove where some pelicans and penguins found fish in the shadow.  A minute later some young sea lions discovered them and chased all the birds away while they feed.  Afterwards the sea lions just annoyed the pelican for fun until the pelican remembered it had wings.

Later, we were surprised by the number of finches nearby.  We have not seen them concentrated so close to the shore before.  Then we turned the corner and saw the bird house.  Our guide mentioned that the Park Service was trying to re-introduce certain species of finch to different areas of the islands.  Many finches were nesting in the ridges near the house, so perhaps it is working.

Then I saw one of the coolest things of this trip.  A school of Golden Cownose Rays were skimming the shallows near the walls of the cove.  I don’t think I can properly explain how serene this was – it was like falling Ginkgo Leaves in autumn, drifting in the breeze.  I was working on removing the shine from the sun reflection, but I think I like it this way.

Our tour finished with some humor.  A group of penguins were hunting near the ship, and one actually was sitting on a rung of our dock ladder while looking down for fish.  We had to wait a few minutes until it dived after something before we were allowed to park the Zodiac.