A cool breeze was blowing as we approached the coastline on Espumilla Beach. The shore was calm and the usually big waves were absent today. At a distance a light colored object was standing next to a tree and our expectations began to build up; today was the day we expected to maybe encounter a Galapagos hawk, but Mother Nature had a lot of surprises waiting for us.
As soon as we disembarked on the soft sandy beach one of the naturalist guides pick up the binoculars to clearly distinguish the object at the distance - it was in fact a Galapagos hawk. However as we scanned the mangrove trees on the coastline it was possible to see more hawks, and today for many of us it became a record in the number of juvenile hawks we have ever seen.
Moving along the beach several juvenile hawks started to appear on different trees, four on one tree, five on one tree, then a hawk taking off and landing on the next tree, others deciding to take off and then landing on the beach - it was a bird photographer’s dream. I counted 15 hawks, while my colleague counted 20. It was my personal record in a lifetime, not only did these hawks seem to be everywhere, but for some moments I thought they were trying to compete with the sea lions in the different poses they fall into. Or maybe all these juvenile hawks simply decided that today they would be the most photographed animal by our group of explorers, and I think they succeeded.
After being overwhelmed by this experience it was time to go back on board and get ready for the undersea realm, and again the Galapagos animals were some impressive performers, a favorite being the giant manta rays gracefully swimming in the blue waters.
More adventures were waiting for us during the afternoon, but first it was time to have lunch, as the day began very early and we all needed more energy for the afternoon walk.
During the afternoon we visited Puerto Egas, and the marine iguanas were the performers. We had a very low tide and several marine iguanas began to feed on the green algae that was exposed, so after carefully approaching these reptiles we could observe all the desperation that some seemed to have as they bit the algae and took pieces off.
A beautiful sunset followed as we returned to the National Geographic Endeavour. As we arrived at the beach where we had to get back on the Zodiacs two sea lions waited, posing against a sky that began to reflect different colors. It was just another day in this unique paradise.
