Gardner Bay and Punta Suarez
The sun started to light, and some drizzle wet our faces: we are now on the “garúa season” that usually is dry and grey with some moisture up in the mountains. We got ready for a day filled with lots of activities on Espanola Island, for meeting some of the endemic and special animals that are only found here, such as the hood mockingbird, and the magnificent waved albatross. Espanola, or Hood, is very well known for its exquisite flora and fauna.
In the morning was our first snorkeling in the Galápagos waters. It showed us different tropical fish and some new friends, young sea lions that moved around a group of snorkelers. It is considered one of the most enjoyable experiences in the Galápagos waters. Also a few rays swam along the bottom and just under some of the new explorers that could see many creatures that Charles Darwin himself never saw, as he never visited this island during his voyage around the Galápagos.
After snorkeling we headed to a very white sandy beach with many colonies of sea lions resting and playing along the shore line. The most colorful lava lizards of the Galápagos were also present on this beautiful beach, some of them having a symbiotic relationship with sea lions. It was a very relaxing time, lying on the beach in a similar way that sea lions did, although we could not roll around the sand as well as they did, neither swim as graciously as some of them do.
During lunchtime we moved to a new location, Punta Suarez, and all our expectations were fulfilled, including the chance to see some waved albatross that are endemic to this island within the whole archipelago. Upon arrival to the island we could find some marine iguanas occasionally sneezing to get rid of some of the salts that they take in when they eat the green alga that is their main source of food. As we were walking in this uneven terrain, Nazca boobies that were incubating eggs were found along the trail, and suddenly a Galápagos hawk landed on a tree nearby. To make the scene even better we could see some of the waved albatrosses flying above us.
To have a whole idea of the complete life cycle, if the albatross has some young chicks that were in the process of losing their down and getting feathers, they would then start to practice and began to wave their wings. They will then soon get ready for the decisive day, as in a few weeks most will have to do their first take off, which is basically jumping off a cliff, opening their wings and letting nature to the rest, and gliding over the ocean. Some of the young chicks molting their down had unique patterns over their body, in some the down looked like a 1980s punk rocker haircut. These young albatrosses will not return to this island for a few years and will instead wander around the South Pacific Ocean. Then it will be time to come back to the homeland to try to mate and a few months after that the whole lifecycle will begin again, as many generations have before them.
Finally it was time to return to the National Geographic Endeavour, and as we started to get closer to our ship the sun disappeared behind the horizon. It was a day with a bit of a workout, but well worth it, as we enjoyed the unique beauty of the magnificent island.
