Española Island
This was our last day in the Galápagos Islands, and what experiences we had for our final day in this magical place.
Some of our guests opted for early activity, exploring the coastal area of Española Island on board our kayaks. Later on we started heading to Gardener Islet for our last snorkeling activity experience. Once there we had the opportunity to swim with lots of fish, and the most playful animal, the Galápagos sea lions.
Our last morning activity allowed our guests to explore one of the most beautiful white sandy beaches in Galápagos. This beach is the home to a couple of hundred sea lions; they seem to ignore us, or at least do not care if visitors walk along their home beach, as long as we respect their territory.
After our morning experience, we repositioned our ship to the next site on the same island. As soon as we set foot on Punta Suarez, we were greeted along the trail by some of the most curious and friendly land birds, Española mocking birds. We also encountered the Española lava lizard, and the colorful Española marine iguana.
We arrived to a geological formation were the waves roll inside a fissure, and due to the pressure the sea water rise up in the air, and to decorate this event there were a few waved albatross gliding in front the cliff. This is the largest sea bird in the archipelago and also is endemic to this island. On the way back to the National Geographic Islander we saw a couple of these magnificent birds courting. This courtship together with the blue-footed boobies are the most attractive to observe.
One of the main reasons for this island to have a high degree of endemism is because all these animals had more time to evolve into new and unique species for Española.
When we were boarding the Zodiac we could see the sun was setting in the west, and the moon rising in the east. This natural event was a goodbye for our guests.
