Española Island
Today was our first full day in the Galapagos Archipelago. What a way to start our journey, visiting Española Island. We visited three sites on the Island: Gardner Bay, Gardner Islet and Suarez Point.
After breakfast our guests had a snorkeling briefing and immediately proceeded to get snorkeling gear. After gearing up, the more experienced snorkelers headed up to Gardner Island to do deep water snorkeling and the beginners went up to Gardner Bay to practice. Both places offered them amazing chances to observe big schools of fish, stingrays and sea lions.
After our aquatic activities in the morning, we had some time to spend at the beach in Gardner Bay and had a blast with all the sea lions found at this site; we even were so lucky to witness the birth of a Galapagos sea lion, it was an amazing moment. After the sea lion was born, several frigate birds hovered over the baby trying to get the nutritious placenta. A couple of times the mother of the pup let them know they were too close to the baby by barking at them. It was quite a show and we were so lucky to be at the right place in the right moment to see this happening in front of our eyes.
In the afternoon, Suarez Point was our destination; we went for a walk along the coast. The diversity of life at this site was incredible, every step you take on this place you can find many different kinds of birds, reptiles and sea lions coexisting together. We found the iconic bird of Española, the waved albatross. We saw many in flight, but others on land. The courtship of this bird is spectacular and we witness it several times.
Our day was full of emotions. In addition to all of the incredible things already listed, a big pod of bottle nosed dolphins were bow riding our ship as we were navigating from Gardner Bay to Suarez Point.
