This morning we are on Española Island, which is about five millions years old and considered the oldest one of the seventeen major islands forming the Galapagos. Precisely we are at Gardner Bay, a beautiful turquoise blue water cove surrounded by a few islets. Our exploration started at 6:30 a.m. when the kayakers went to see the coast of Gardner Bay. The first impressive thing they saw was the carcass of a baby whale that beached against the rocks and died few days ago. Sea birds were seen as early feeders on the ocean, and some marine iguanas started to bask under the sun to warm up. Kayaking is one of the several activities one can do here, and it is so exciting because it gets you so close to the shoreline from the water level, giving a different perspective of the Galapagos world. It is very quiet, calm, and exciting.
After that, we had breakfast, and then we suited up for water activities. The majority of our explorers went to snorkel in deep waters just to see the fascinating marine world of Galapagos. Here, curious sea lions love to play and show off to all our guests - you can’t believe if you don’t experience it! They are such playful and friendly mammals. They come and bite your flippers, or make bubbles in front of your face. it is so amazing, and it makes your experience in the water fascinating. Besides sea lions you find multicolored fish, sting rays, sea urchins, sea stars, and many other creatures of the sea. Then we went to walk along a beach made of white coral, enjoying the soft walk barefooted like a good foot massage. We found there many hood mockingbirds, finches, warblers, and big colonies of sea lions resting and sleeping along the coast.
Sea lions tend to sleep a lot because they spend many days off getting some fish to eat. This task demands a lot of energy so they are very tired when they come back to land and take long naps to recover.
In the afternoon we moved to Punta Suarez, a super spot covered by tons of animals. One of the peculiar facts of Española is that it has many unique animals found nowhere else in Galapagos or the rest of the world. This island has a very high percentage of endemism. It’s only here that you find the biggest lava lizards, one of the four species of mockingbirds, one of the six subspecies of marine iguanas, and the majestic waved albatross which is the biggest bird of the islands.
We started our walk and our first impression was of the colorful Sally lightfoot crabs that cover the black lava rocks. Then we spotted the reddish green marine iguanas and sea lions basking under the sun, and inland we found flocks of blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, sea gulls, hawks, and frigates. The blowhole is spectacular. It’s a natural formation where water from the ocean hits a lava tunnel with a fissure on the top and the water is ejected a few dozen feet up into the air, giving us an incredible show of nature.
At the end of the trail we found a very famous empty place known as the “Albatross Airport.” Here the albatross lands after its journey and also mates to ensure the survival of its species. Now they are nesting and feeding their babies, they appear in good health, and soon they will be up in the air again. As a very important fact juvenile albatrosses leave the island with their parents around the end of December and the beginning of January and they stay five years off the islands, while their parents come back every year to reproduce.
It has been a great day, after exploring this magical place we headed back to our ship. We’re so pleased and aware that we are in a very special place full of nature. Certainly a place like Galapagos is hard to find nowadays on our planet.
