Española Island
Española Island is the oldest island of the archipelago. It is also one of the coldest islands due to the influence of Humboldt Current. By visiting it you can understand the different reasons why the Galápagos are so special:
Their origin: Galápagos is a volcanic archipelago, which means the islands were never attached to mainland; they were formed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Every species had to arrive from somewhere else. Quite a long trip for some species! That is the first limitation for many different animals, that couldn’t make it here. For example, there aren’t large predators; this explains why animals are so friendly and why you can get so close.
Speciation: As soon as the species arrived at the islands, they had to adapt to survive in this specific habitat. The Galápagos have two seasons: dry and wet. During the dry season the islands are almost a desert. The vegetation will take advantage of the few months of rain in order to produce flowers and seeds and then go back to a dormant stage. There is very little fresh water. In order to survive species started changing. On Española Island, for example we have a lot of unique species, such as the Española mockingbird, or the Española lava lizard. The snakes are unique and a specific marine iguana subspecies is only found here too.
Their late colonization: The islands were not a welcoming environment to humans, that’s why the islands were colonized very late. Due to the little human impact we have conserved over 95% of our biodiversity.
Today we experienced Galápagos at its best. We enjoyed the friendly behavior of the animals by snorkeling with Galápagos sea lions. We saw many unique species such as the lizards and mockingbirds. We appreciated the beauty of one of the most pristine places in the world by walking while surrounded by nesting albatrosses, blue-footed boobies and Nazca boobies. This is Española Island, the best welcome to start our week in the Galápagos Islands.
