Española Island
As we pull into a nice, calm, little bay located at the island of Española, we could get the first glimpse of what it looks from far, minute, black dots moving around. We realized soon that they were nothing else but the Galápagos sea lions waiting for us to come to shore. As we disembarked, we had a “welcome committee” formed mainly by marine iguanas, sea lions and all kinds of sea birds flying all over our heads.
As we strolled along the trail, the radiant, red and green colors of the Española marine iguanas, almost hypnotized us and we were drawn to them. Without realizing it, we were walking amongst lava lizards, baby sea lions, mother sea lions, blue footed boobies and a myriad of animals. Just when we thought that we had seen it all, we started seeing some nests with very young and naïve baby “Nazca” boobies. It was nice to sit, relax and observed that with their innocent looks and carelessness, these babies gave us a picture of how the world is supposed to be.
As we were making our way back to the ship, we got to see a beautiful couple of waved albatrosses on their nesting grounds. These majestic looking birds are supposed to be gone by now since the season is changing rapidly, but apparently we struck a lucky day!
We came back to the ship to encounter a traditional Ecuadorian lunch served in the dinning room. After such an amazing feast of food, siesta was mandatory! Our afternoon activities started off again by three, this time to enjoy the marine ecosystem of the archipelago. Options for deep and shallow water snorkeling were offered, but some of our guest decided to see the fish from a different point of view, and the glass bottom boat sounded like a good idea. It did not matter what was the choice in the beginning because by the end of the day we all met on the beach. Beaches on the Galápagos are nothing less than beautiful, and this particular one was fully cover with white coral where the sole inhabitants are hundreds of sea lions. Just as if were dreaming, some of the sea lions approached us played with us on land and in the water, this marked the end of our first full day in paradise!
As we pull into a nice, calm, little bay located at the island of Española, we could get the first glimpse of what it looks from far, minute, black dots moving around. We realized soon that they were nothing else but the Galápagos sea lions waiting for us to come to shore. As we disembarked, we had a “welcome committee” formed mainly by marine iguanas, sea lions and all kinds of sea birds flying all over our heads.
As we strolled along the trail, the radiant, red and green colors of the Española marine iguanas, almost hypnotized us and we were drawn to them. Without realizing it, we were walking amongst lava lizards, baby sea lions, mother sea lions, blue footed boobies and a myriad of animals. Just when we thought that we had seen it all, we started seeing some nests with very young and naïve baby “Nazca” boobies. It was nice to sit, relax and observed that with their innocent looks and carelessness, these babies gave us a picture of how the world is supposed to be.
As we were making our way back to the ship, we got to see a beautiful couple of waved albatrosses on their nesting grounds. These majestic looking birds are supposed to be gone by now since the season is changing rapidly, but apparently we struck a lucky day!
We came back to the ship to encounter a traditional Ecuadorian lunch served in the dinning room. After such an amazing feast of food, siesta was mandatory! Our afternoon activities started off again by three, this time to enjoy the marine ecosystem of the archipelago. Options for deep and shallow water snorkeling were offered, but some of our guest decided to see the fish from a different point of view, and the glass bottom boat sounded like a good idea. It did not matter what was the choice in the beginning because by the end of the day we all met on the beach. Beaches on the Galápagos are nothing less than beautiful, and this particular one was fully cover with white coral where the sole inhabitants are hundreds of sea lions. Just as if were dreaming, some of the sea lions approached us played with us on land and in the water, this marked the end of our first full day in paradise!
