We started the day kayaking. It was cloudy and misty, perfect for the activity, with the wind at our backs which made paddling so much easier. Along the sand along the shoreline Pacific green turtles were seen leaving their nests after an all-night effort. They layed over 120 eggs per nest and were tired, yet they delayed their entrance into the water because males were waiting to copulate with them. Not much romance among reptiles. The visitor site is called Espumilla for the foam produced by the waves. True to its name, it gave our guests more than one scare and some of them got wet. Kayaking allowed us to see fur sea lions, pelicans, blue footed boobies, nazca boobies, pelicans, marine iguanas and brown noddies along the shoreline, all the way to Buccaneer’s Cove. Several times we were able to see endemic yellow-tailed mullets skimming the surface along with king angel fish and yellow-tailed surgeon fish. The fur sea lions were unusually active on the boulders, being the night creatures they are. After the excursion we had a well-deserved breakfast and got ready for either a Zodiac ride or snorkeling. Then it started raining, these are the first rains of the season and all of the reptiles and land creatures have been waiting eagerly for them.
Lunch and a siesta were well deserved to get us ready to visit Puerto Egas. Luckily the rain stopped as we were disembarking to walk along the shore. Wading birds such as plovers, oyster catchers, lava herons, sanderlings, great blue herons, finches and yellow warblers accompanied us during the walk. At the end of the path a fur sea lion grotto was waiting for us with a high number of occupants. The rain threatened throughout the visit, but never actually rained, we got lucky! After the visit we went back on board the National Geographic Islander to enjoy a barbecue. A full, exciting day came to a close.
