Española Island
Without a doubt this is one of those islands that can’t be missed if you ever come to the Galápagos; therefore we visited it with our National Geographic Polaris guests.
We started our second day of exploration at Pta Suarez. This rocky, mile and a half walk is amazing because of the abundance of wildlife. Española Island is a vivid example of what we can do in order to restore a wonderful place.
Since the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station started the tortoise breeding program 40 years ago, an amazing success has been achieved in the restoration of Española. From a population of 12 females plus three males, and with the arrival of Super Diego from the San Diego Zoo, now we have over 2000 individuals, and what is even more amazing is that they are now breeding in the wild.
After seeing lots of species on the island, we arrived at the blow hole to see the view and get a well deserved rest: Waved albatrosses, Nazca boobies, red billed tropic birds, blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, and Galápagos hawks were gliding back and forth right in front of us. We could have stayed there forever, but our adventure had to continue.
Once everyone was on board, we provided snorkeling equipment for all our explorers. After a delicious Ecuadorian lunch we had a well deserved siesta in preparation for the afternoon activities: the glass-bottom boat, kayaking, deep water snorkeling, and even snorkeling lessons at Gardener beach. We ended our day on the sky deck with star gazing.
This was another beautiful day in the company of endemic Española animals that we won’t see any where else in the world, not even in the Galápagos…
Without a doubt this is one of those islands that can’t be missed if you ever come to the Galápagos; therefore we visited it with our National Geographic Polaris guests.
We started our second day of exploration at Pta Suarez. This rocky, mile and a half walk is amazing because of the abundance of wildlife. Española Island is a vivid example of what we can do in order to restore a wonderful place.
Since the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station started the tortoise breeding program 40 years ago, an amazing success has been achieved in the restoration of Española. From a population of 12 females plus three males, and with the arrival of Super Diego from the San Diego Zoo, now we have over 2000 individuals, and what is even more amazing is that they are now breeding in the wild.
After seeing lots of species on the island, we arrived at the blow hole to see the view and get a well deserved rest: Waved albatrosses, Nazca boobies, red billed tropic birds, blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, and Galápagos hawks were gliding back and forth right in front of us. We could have stayed there forever, but our adventure had to continue.
Once everyone was on board, we provided snorkeling equipment for all our explorers. After a delicious Ecuadorian lunch we had a well deserved siesta in preparation for the afternoon activities: the glass-bottom boat, kayaking, deep water snorkeling, and even snorkeling lessons at Gardener beach. We ended our day on the sky deck with star gazing.
This was another beautiful day in the company of endemic Española animals that we won’t see any where else in the world, not even in the Galápagos…
