Our expedition began with an exploration of Española Island. The southeastern most island in Galapagos, it is also the oldest one. In the morning we headed to Gardner Islet where we went snorkeling in deep waters. Some guests wanted to practice snorkeling from the shore and so we went to a nearby beach. There we encountered several Galapagos sea lions, most of them sleeping. This morning we also got our first chance to go kayaking along the cliffs of Española Island and we had a great time exploring the coast.
As we ended our morning in Gardner Bay, we navigated toward the western coast and we had the opportunity to explore the Punta Suárez trail. There we walked among Nazca boobies, the very colorful Galapagos marine iguanas, and Galapagos sea lions. We also had our one and only chance to observe the Galapagos waved albatross. This species only nests on Española — on a very small island off the coast of Ecuador known as “Isla de la Plata.” This afternoon, we found some waved albatrosses performing their courtship dance as well as some adults feeding juveniles right in front of us.
At the end of the day, we returned to our ship full of excitement at the species of animals and gorgeous landscapes we observed today. It was a wonderful day!
