Española Island

The weather report has been rather constant for the last week: overcast skies, with a light to moderate warm rain, calm seas with water temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s, and an elevated percentage of humidity. This is the typical weather of the Galápagos during this time of the year, the rainy season.

Today we started our outing kayaking at Gardner Bay where the National Geographic Islander is anchored. We enjoyed still and turquoise waters where we found sea lions swimming in the shallows. Our morning was spent at the beach, where a large sea lion colony is found. Here, sea lion bulls are patrolling their territories, looking after young pups, while the females are fishing. The play goes endlessly amongst the pups that learn to swim and dive in the shore.

We continue our activities snorkeling in rather clear waters, where the presence of tropical fish is exuberant!

In the afternoon we are at Punta Suarez, where we enjoy one of the best hikes due to one of the largest rookeries found on the islands. This is the place where the National Park Service has managed to repatriate 1500 giant tortoises from 15 individuals that started to breed in captivity at the rearing center in Puerto Ayora, some 30 years ago!

Española is a great island to end our expedition, that has been abundant with wildlife sightings: Bryde’s and killer whales, common and bottle nosed dolphins, giant tortoises and pacific sea turtles, land and marine iguanas, pelicans and tropic birds, lava and swallow tailed gulls, sea lions and fur sea lions, penguins and cormorants, blue and Nazca boobies. These are just some among the many other animals we have observed this week…

We came to Galápagos looking for adventure and excitement, and we all have found it here, in this wonderful National Park that Galápagos is!
 

Fausto Arellano, Naturalist
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