Española Island
It is wonderful to return to the good ship Polaris and begin, once again, to travel in these beautiful islands. I have been at home these past five weeks on Santa Cruz Island, while the ship was at dry dock in Panama, enjoying the peace and tranquility. Santa Cruz is interesting and I had a great vacation, but I have missed seeing what is going on in the remainder of the Archipelago.
Española Island supports a variety of wildlife, and our visit there today was terrific! Lazy marine iguanas were sprawled on the coastal trails. The frightening appearance of these large lizards had some of our guests worried that they might attack us. But I explained that these reptiles are both peaceful and fearless. In Galápagos, there are no natural predators of adult iguanas. The much smaller lava lizards are more alert and quick to dart away because snakes and hawks usually eat them. We stopped and watched a couple of the lava lizards performing their mating ritual. As we continued on, we passed through a colony of Nazca boobies and waved albatrosses. Both of the sea bird colonies were active, and our guests took countless photos.
In the afternoon, we enjoyed options of glass bottom boating or snorkeling. The snorkeling was fantastic with schools of colorful tropical fish, an octopus, sharks, and a tiger snake eel. The finale to this fabulous day was some quiet time on a lovely white sand beach where sea lions frolicked, rested and carried on as if we didn’t exist. We found one babe only a few hours old; he was enjoying his first day in this paradise. At sunset, we returned to the ship and raised a toast – with a blue-footed-booby-cocktail no less – to the success of our voyage so far, and to the upcoming days in these enchanted Galápagos Islands.
It is wonderful to return to the good ship Polaris and begin, once again, to travel in these beautiful islands. I have been at home these past five weeks on Santa Cruz Island, while the ship was at dry dock in Panama, enjoying the peace and tranquility. Santa Cruz is interesting and I had a great vacation, but I have missed seeing what is going on in the remainder of the Archipelago.
Española Island supports a variety of wildlife, and our visit there today was terrific! Lazy marine iguanas were sprawled on the coastal trails. The frightening appearance of these large lizards had some of our guests worried that they might attack us. But I explained that these reptiles are both peaceful and fearless. In Galápagos, there are no natural predators of adult iguanas. The much smaller lava lizards are more alert and quick to dart away because snakes and hawks usually eat them. We stopped and watched a couple of the lava lizards performing their mating ritual. As we continued on, we passed through a colony of Nazca boobies and waved albatrosses. Both of the sea bird colonies were active, and our guests took countless photos.
In the afternoon, we enjoyed options of glass bottom boating or snorkeling. The snorkeling was fantastic with schools of colorful tropical fish, an octopus, sharks, and a tiger snake eel. The finale to this fabulous day was some quiet time on a lovely white sand beach where sea lions frolicked, rested and carried on as if we didn’t exist. We found one babe only a few hours old; he was enjoying his first day in this paradise. At sunset, we returned to the ship and raised a toast – with a blue-footed-booby-cocktail no less – to the success of our voyage so far, and to the upcoming days in these enchanted Galápagos Islands.
