After a full day of travel and another full day of exploring North Seymour and Genovesa, our third day was set to be a little lighter with most of the day spent navigating between islands. However, even with most of the day spent on the Samba, we still had a full morning snorkeling off the island of Marchena.
Punta Espejo
Our day started, as usual, at six in the morning before breakfast in Punta Espejo (Mirror Point) where we were set to jump in the zodiacs and spend the first hour and half in the water snorkeling. If you remember my day 2 post, you’ll recall that we were already in the water less than 24 hours prior which means that not only are we jumping into the ocean first thing in the morning, but our wetsuits weren’t completely dry as we were preparing for this morning’s outing. For those of you who haven’t had this particular aquatic experience, it’s similar to putting a sausage casing on a log of frozen sausage, underwater. Or for those in the medical field, putting on a latex glove while your hand is dripping wet. Appropriately enough, it feels exactly how you think it would. After working through this struggle (and helping other folks on the boat), we were on the zodiac and in the water.
A moray eel gliding across our group. They are docile to humans and feed mostly on small fish, crabs and sea urchins. 
These small (<1.5in) pink, yellowfins and black fish were deemed as Lauren’s favorite. Unfortunately we completely forgot to ask Harry what kind they were and still haven’t found out after extensive googling. The GoPro picture doesn’t do them justice, but they were very vibrant and stayed in loose schools of 30-40. 
This black sting ray was one of the highlights and I was able to get extremely close. This was taken from about 3 feet away. These typically stay along the bottom and suck up small fish and mollusks. 
The highlight of the snorkel was spotting this young white tip reef shark. This was taken from 5 feet away and is about 2 feet long. These usually stay pretty small and don’t exceed 4-5 feet once matured.
As we were heading back to the Samba, I realized that my GoPro photography skills leave a lot to be desired BUT considering that the last time we were in the archipelago, my knock off GoPro died after the first snorkel, I figure any decent shots were better than none at all.
Punta Negra
Punta Espejo was only a snorkeling stop for us but once back on board, we began navigating to to Punta Negra (Black Point) where we again, donned our wetsuits and snorkeling gear and hike to an inland pool to explore the ocean life that lives there. The terrain of the island was bizarre, as we landed on black lava fields but very shortly in the distance, we could see the lush greenness of the rest of the island.
While we didn’t run across any new species we haven’t seen before, we were able to get very close to the fish and marine life due to the shallowness of the pool itself. At its deepest, it was around 16 feet, with most of the aquatic life living in much shallower waters. It was slightly disorienting before jumping into the pool because from the surface, it looked like a run of the mill lake, but the minute we put our heads under the water, tons of different fish were visible, lurking just under the surface.
A school of yellow tailed surgeonfish, just under the surface of the pool. 
They get their name from the three white dots close to their tail as it contains spines that are as sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel! 
Lauren was operating the GoPro during the section, so no gallery of hers would be complete without a playful sea lion 
No trip would be complete without time taken to discuss the life’s deeper meaning and humanity’s place in the cosmos. Which Lauren and I were able to do with Steve and his lovely wife Karyn in Steve’s natural habitat on the shore of the inland pool of Punta Negra.
We were off the island and back on the Samba just before lunch where we settled in for our six hour navigation to our next destination. With our previous full days and knowing that the next few would be similar, it was nice to take the afternoon to relax on the bow, read a good book, do a little writing or take part in one of maritime’s oldest traditions- getting seasick, which Lauren was involuntarily participated in.
Just as we were about to prepare for dinner that night, we were extraordinarily fortunate enough to see a huge pod of common dolphins swimming in the distance. José, immediately adjusted course and went in pursuit. These dolphins are commonly found in the archipelago and are the same variety that we see in North America. In the Galapagos, they are often spotted by ships moving between islands as they hunt for fish and mate; in total there were around 30 dolphins in total, with the below picture showing the few that got closest to the ship.
Once the dolphins moved on their journey, we continued on ours. Our routine of having dinner with our travel companions followed by Harry’s briefing remained and luckily Lauren was feeling better to enjoy both. We anchored off the shore of Isabella island where it was calm enough to fall asleep to the gentle rocking of the boat.
Featured Image: A late morning view of Marchena, coming up to Punta Negra
to love and wander 
I did teach our young travel companions a few of life’s most important lessons, like wearing a t-shirt or sunscreen on your back if you choose not to wear a wet suit. I’m still suffering from this very bad negative example.
Seriously, Devin, this blog is fantastic. I have ADD so I wasn’t listening most of the time while Harry spoke. I’m learning a lot from you! Say “hello” to Lauren for us!
…and how much your sleep will be affected if one goes down that same path.
thank you Steve! I’m glad the blog can be used to supplement your ADD :-). From my perspective, I’ll completely forget everything after a few months time so this blog helps with my god awful memory.