Hood Island
Today we explored the oldest island in Galápagos. We went on to Punta Suárez, where we encountered large colonies of Nazca boobies, Galápagos waved albatross, and Hood mockingbirds. We observed a couple of blue footed boobies in full courtship display; the male offered her several small pebbles, she looked some times as if she didn’t care at all. Finally she exchanged some pebbles with him and danced with her mate for a few minutes. This whole courtship can last several minutes or even hours.
We continued walking on volcanic boulders and got very close to one of the most beautiful birds in Galápagos; we encountered the albatross. We found several of these birds ready to take off; one we found was already incubating an egg. We looked at them and they looked back, as if both were curious about the nature and origin of each other.
We left behind Punta Suarez and headed east to Gardner Bay, where we spent our afternoon, snorkeling, swimming, walking and kayaking. We had dozens of Galápagos sea lions playing around us all afternoon.
Galápagos showed its natural magic and we are ready for more to come tomorrow.
