After our two day visit to Isla Isabela, we traveled to the very pristine Isla Fernandina, reportedly the most pristine and untouched island in the world.  Fernandina is home to the world's largest colony of marine iguanas.  Following our visit, we set sail for Isla de Jaime.  During our journey, we saw whales, giant manta rays and, remarkably, a whale shark in the open waters of the Pacific.  Our captain, Pepe, spotted the whale shark, navigated near it, and then cut the motor so that we could see the roughly thirty foot shark up close.  We were so close that many of us donned our snorkeling gear to jump in the frigid currents of the Pacific for yet another once in a lifetime opportunity, to snorkel with a whale shark.  Unfortunately, just as we were about to leap in, the whale shark slowly began to swim off and no one was lucky enough to get a good water view of plankton eating beauty.

We also had the first in a lifetime experience of crossing over the Ecuator by sea from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere, although we later crossed back over into the Southern Hemisphere later that night.  It's Summer, no it's Winter, no it's Summer!

Here is a marine iguana swimming.  Excellent swimmers, they can dive to a depth of 90 feet in search of green algae, their principal food source.

Here a lazy sea lion dozes in the sun.

Yes, occasionally ships the size of this one ply the waters of the Galàpagos.  This marine iguana does not know what to think of this huge ship.  Fortunately, because of the careful planning of our route, we were able to avoid the crowds of other ships, such as this.  In fact, we were most often, the only humans on the islands we visited.

Dozens of marine iguanas laze around, often on each other, on Isla Fernandina.

While the picture obviously does not do it justice, this 30-40 foot whale shark swims next to the Samba.  You can see its tail fin breaking the water to the right of the photo.

We enjoy the sun set as we near the Ecuator.

The ship's crew trolled for fish at every opportunity.  This poor fellow, as it gasps its last breath shortly after being caught, was rather delicious.  Fresh Tuna.....yummmm.

Do you know the difference between a sea lion and a fur seal?  You will if you continue on to our next stop, Isla Jaime.

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