Yesterday everyone arrived on the island of San Cristobal. The easternmost of the archipelago, this island is also one of the oldest, and it harbors an airport just outside the provincial capital of Galapagos, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.

But this morning we woke up anchored off the southeastern most island of Española, or Hood Island, also an “old” (4-5 million years of age) island and one of the most remote in this group, isolated in the middle of the East Pacific Ocean.

Española is renowned for its collection of endemic species. Because the prevailing winds and ocean currents arrive mainly from the southeast, the rare organism that managed to make Española its home (a botanist once calculated that one arrival and establishment per 10,000 years would account for all the native and endemic species of plants found in Galapagos) was subsequently left to its own devices for millennia. Descendants quite possibly drifted or were blown over to islands further west, but no one ever drifted back. This isolation has resulted in Española lava lizards, Española mockingbirds, Española tortoises, Española marine iguanas, Española prickly pear cacti…you get the point.

In the morning, a light drizzle didn’t deter anyone from any of the visits planned. The snorkelers had a blast: lobster, zebra moray, surgeonfish, damselfish, and a rare surge wrasse! On the beach we had the mockingbirds practically inside our backpacks while Galapagos sea lions slept or lounged at the waterline.

The lava lizards were more obvious during the walk at Punta Suarez, the westernmost point of the island. Nazca boobies were plentiful along the cliff edge and as the sun got lower in the sky, more flew in from the day’s fishing to fill out the colony; the sounds of arriving birds filled the air, joined by an occasional large whoosh as a wave became compressed in a fissure and shot sky-high.

The male marine iguanas of Espanola have started to develop their breeding colors: red and black as usual, plus the copper-oxide green forearms and a stripe down their back just below the jagged crest. Three spotted eagle rays courted vigorously in the shallows of a small beach near the landing and a Galapagos hawk preened while atop the beacon light—a great lookout position for the top predator!

This island of enchantment has been only the first full day here in the archipelago. So much more to come!