Hood Island
Hood is one of the most beautiful islands and one of our favorite places to explore; at the same time it is the oldest in the archipelago. We began our day exploring a large colony of seabirds; here we encountered the nesting grounds of Galápagos waved albatross as well as Nazca boobies.
Along our trail we also saw several blue-footed booby couples busy in their courtship rituals. The air was full of whistles and honking sounds as males and females were trying to attract each other. There were also several newly-hatched chicks, and their parents were feeding them with semi-digested fish.
We also found large Galápagos waved albatross chicks with their big, thick coats of downy feathers; many looked impatient as their parents were not in sight. We found more than thirty along our way, and this has been by far one of the best years for recruitment of albatross.
After we left Punta Suarez we headed east and arrived at Gardner Bay for the afternoon. We had different options: some of our guests went snorkeling from the shore, while others tried their snorkeling skills in deeper waters. Some of our guests went on to the glass bottom boat and discovered part of the underwater world of the archipelago. Others opted to explore the coastal area of Gardner Islet by kayak— it was a nice cool afternoon with beautiful light.
We all had a great time in this area of the archipelago.
