Española Island
The morning was clear and promised to be a great day, and at 6:30am the kayakers embarked for a nice paddling excursion. After breakfast we went deep-water snorkeling at Gardner Rock where we spotted several species of colorful tropical fish and different kinds of sea stars.
Some beginner snorkelers decided to swim off the beach instead of taking part in the deep-water outing. At the beautiful coralline white sand beach our guests were surrounded by playful sea lions and some birds scouting out our belongings – Hood mockingbirds.
The afternoon was beautiful for all living things in the Galápagos Islands. It was time to learn a bit more about this stunning heaven, which we did by visiting some of the best sites on Española Island. Punta Suarez is situated on the westernmost side of the island where almost all fauna concentrated. This gives us a wonderful opportunity to see evidence of the high percentage of endemism in the archipelago.
When we set foot on the island we were greeted by the welcoming committee: nursing sea lions, lava lizards, basking marine iguanas, Sally Lightfoot crabs, the endemic mockingbird and many pup sea lions swimming in the shallow pools, plus Galápagos hawks, blue-footed boobies and more. As soon as we started to hike we realized that wherever we looked an animal was present. It is hard to believe how a life form that started out looking completely different thousands of years ago can exist here. Their adaptations have allowed them to continue to exist – we were eyewitness to their extraordinary survival! We cannot forget to mention that we saw waved albatrosses juveniles, such fascinating creatures – graceful and unique from the island. They keep coming year after year to the same place were all of them were born. We also saw endemic Nazca boobies and several large cactus ground finches.
This lovely day is fading and will never come back; but we will be continuing our incredible experiences tomorrow!
