Española Island
Española is by far the oldest island of the archipelago at about six-million years old. Compared with San Cristobal (the island we visited yesterday), it is much flatter and without hills or highlands, which have eroded away.
Gardner Bay at Española Island offers the most delightful snorkeling areas. It is also great for kayaking and has a spectacular white sand beach teeming with hundreds of Galápagos sea lions. We started the morning with a pre-breakfast kayak trip along the coastline, observing spectacular cliff formations and Galápagos marine life such as sea lions, crabs and many boobies in a feeding frenzy. After breakfast we returned to explore the underwater world, swimming with playful sea lions that accompanied us while snorkeling. Finally, the last outing began aboard the Zodiacs heading to the white sandy beach where like rocks, many sea lions slept peacefully. As we landed, our guests discovered a curious bird: the Española mockingbird, another land bird species endemic to Galápagos; it’s curiosity had no boundaries, inspecting our bags looking for water or food, while a flock of Galápagos hawks, adults and juveniles together, were flying over our heads, probably watching a prey for lunch.
In the afternoon, we started our outing with a landing at Punta Suarez. Here we had the most amazing welcoming committee, with big red marine iguanas and sea lions. We walked inland discovering a great variety of seabirds. One of the most beautiful was the blue-footed booby, we observed many of them incubating their eggs or protecting their chicks and along the cliffs the largest Nazca boobies called our attention with the loud calls they make. Finally, we arrived to flat area near the cliff, in Punta Suarez, home of the largest seabird in the archipelago: the waved albatross. They share their nesting area with other seabirds, but they are completely different, bigger with a remarkable different orange bill. We observed many of their chicks, their courtship and huge eggs along the trail, which finally led us to the blowhole where we enjoyed a magnificent geological formation.
Observing the orange sky at the west, we understood that it was late in the afternoon and time to go back to National Geographic Islander. We will always remember the innocence of all the species we observed during this incredible day.
