Today is the first full day of our Galapagos adventure. We dropped anchor at Gardner Bay, we are on Española Island, the oldest island of the Galapagos Archipelago. It was a little overcast in the morning, and we started by handing out the snorkeling gear for an amazing experience. I was fortunate to join the deep water snorkeling activity, and we all enjoyed every single moment. The water temperature today was 67F, cold but normal during this time of the year. The visibility varied, as there was a lot of plankton in the water, however there were schools of tropical fish, so close to us for great pictures for our underwater photographers, and soon we encountered playful Galapagos sea lions who offered quite a show! These young sea lions were feeling very playful, and went from one guest to the other—they felt so comfortable with us that came very close, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience! After our outing, we returned to the ship to quickly change clothes, before heading back out to the beach. Gardner Bay beach is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world—the great white sand feels like powder and because of this the waters around the beach are turquoise. There was a group of sea lions resting at the beach as well, and our delighted guests took many pictures!
After a well-deserved and delicious lunch, the National Geographic Endeavour was repositioned towards Punta Suarez. While we were en route, one of our naturalists, Socrates Tomala, held a lecture about oceanography and the geology of the Galapagos. We disembarked at Punta Suarez, a place for a great hike. There are many boulders at this visitor site, this but never stops our guests. We offered both a long and a short hike today, and both excursions were spectacular, outstanding, and incredible—there are truly no words to describe the feelings that are evoked at Punta Suarez. We got to see Galapagos sea lions, colorful marine iguanas resting on top of each other, warming up underneath the hot Equatorial sun. It certainly was warm, but a nice breeze gave us a nice break, and it was ideal conditions for extraordinary pictures! As we were heading further along the trail we observed Nazca boobies, blue-footed boobies, swallowed-tailed gulls, the only nocturnal gull in the world, and the waved albatross! The waved albatross is nesting during this time of the year, and we got to see chicks and even the complete mating display, which is amazing, very complicated and synchronized. We stopped at the cliffs to observe the blow hole in action. I don’t know how many times I have been here, but today it was perfect! What a day! This is just the start of the expedition, the adventure continues tomorrow.
