As we landed on the island of Española, it was amazing to see how many baby sea lions there were. Some were with their moms and some had just been left behind as the mothers have gone into the ocean to fish; these babies are very demanding when it comes to nursing, so the females normally leave the babies on the beaches while they go out to look for fish…

Española, otherwise known as Hood Island, is the oldest island in Galapagos, at approximately 4 million years of age, which has allowed its’ species more time to evolve in isolation.  Even though it is an old island, if you compare its age to the age of the planet itself, which is around 6.4 billion years, we can still see Española as a young formation.

As we started to walk across the lava, we could see that erosion had converted the lava flows into boulders. The strenuous walk took us to the nesting ground of the waved albatross, one of the part time inhabitants of this place. We were lucky enough to see the first set of males circling   the landing area and eventually landing—what an incredible sighting this was and how worthwhile it made the walk for us.

The albatross is an oceanic bird that only comes to land to reproduce, and they have chosen this particular island because of the cliffs, which they need in order to take off—being oceanic, they are big and need the help of the wind to make it off the ground. The mockingbird of Española is one of the four mockingbird varieties present in the Galapagos—so far we have had a chance to see two of the four species on this voyage.  These are one of the species that got Darwin’s attention back in 1835, when he collected three out of the four, noticing that they had some  physical differences, as he quoted: “there is a difference between the inhabitants of the different islands”…

As we continued to hike along the trail, we had a chance to see the entire breeding cycle of the Nazca Boobies—couples courting, couples making a nest, couples preening each other, parents feeding chicks and independent chicks defying hawks, knowing that they are too big to be carried off and eaten.

As we returned to the ship, we reflected on our day in this fragile place, which needs our help in order to be saved and conserved—not only for us to see, but for the animal species that belong here.