Today we started our day on a beautiful white sandy beach called Gardner Beach, where California sea lions were lying about along with Hood mockingbirds, which were mainly interested in the flies that the sea lions attracted. The sky was a bit cloudy but the water was clear, and we proceeded to snorkel from the beach with the beginners, while the advanced went to Gardner Island for deep water snorkeling.
In the late morning, several guests went kayaking along the northern shoreline and afterwards we had lunch as we sailed west on the National Geographic Endeavour towards Punta Suarez. Here we had a dry landing on the beach, and immediately we spotted the most colorful marine iguanas: they have red spots on their bodies, which they use to attract mates during this season. There were also lots of newborn sea lion pups, and several placentas were lying on the sand as evidence of how recent the births had been.
As we continued inland we saw waved albatrosses with their chicks, warbler finches, yellow warblers, swallow-tailed gulls, hawks, small ground finches and large cactus finches, doves, blue-footed boobies and Nazca boobies, along with Hood mockingbirds throughout the bolder trail.
The path took us along a cliff where most of the albatrosses were found and where a lava tube that has a fissure on top pressurizes water high up into the air. This area is known as “the blowhole” and is one of the major attractions of this site. Every guest was enchanted by the scenery and all of our wildlife sightings during the walk, and will surely keep these memories for the rest of their lives. Galapagos is magical.
