Española Island
We have had such a fantastic time here in the Galápagos during the entire week, but unfortunately everything has an end. Today is our last full day in the Galápagos and it promises to be a great ending! Hood or Española Island has two fantastic visitor’s sites: Gardner bay and Punta Suarez. The first one was our destination during the morning, and most of our guests were engaged in the last snorkeling outing of the week. A few of us decided to go for a stroll along one of the most beautiful beaches that we can find in the entire archipelago. The beach was covered with sea lions mostly, but as we explored the upper beach level, the vegetation was hiding some of the Darwin finches and the very curious and friendly Española mockingbird (on the picture), as well.
In the afternoon we visited Punta Suarez, which supports a diverse group of fascinating species and communities. Many of the fauna species found here are unique to this island and they are literally everywhere! I have to admit that as we were approaching the island, the barren landscape made it look as if nothing was there. Once we set foot on land, the landing site itself revealed large populations of animals that live, grow, reproduce and die in that particular area. The red marine iguanas were among the strangest creatures that we encountered this afternoon, while among the most beautiful was undoubtedly the waved albatross. We also were very lucky and found the biggest of the lava lizard species in the Galápagos. As we continued our walk we found the Galápagos hawks, a boobery (place full of blue-footed boobies) and spotted at the distance the very noisy red billed tropic birds as well. During the whole week, we have been fascinated with every single species that we have been able to see here in this rather tiny archipelago. They all have claimed our interest in many different ways: they were strange, beautiful, unique, and even grotesque, but perhaps the most interesting reason has been that they have all adapted to their environment in manifold marvelous ways, and that is simply admirable!
We have had such a fantastic time here in the Galápagos during the entire week, but unfortunately everything has an end. Today is our last full day in the Galápagos and it promises to be a great ending! Hood or Española Island has two fantastic visitor’s sites: Gardner bay and Punta Suarez. The first one was our destination during the morning, and most of our guests were engaged in the last snorkeling outing of the week. A few of us decided to go for a stroll along one of the most beautiful beaches that we can find in the entire archipelago. The beach was covered with sea lions mostly, but as we explored the upper beach level, the vegetation was hiding some of the Darwin finches and the very curious and friendly Española mockingbird (on the picture), as well.
In the afternoon we visited Punta Suarez, which supports a diverse group of fascinating species and communities. Many of the fauna species found here are unique to this island and they are literally everywhere! I have to admit that as we were approaching the island, the barren landscape made it look as if nothing was there. Once we set foot on land, the landing site itself revealed large populations of animals that live, grow, reproduce and die in that particular area. The red marine iguanas were among the strangest creatures that we encountered this afternoon, while among the most beautiful was undoubtedly the waved albatross. We also were very lucky and found the biggest of the lava lizard species in the Galápagos. As we continued our walk we found the Galápagos hawks, a boobery (place full of blue-footed boobies) and spotted at the distance the very noisy red billed tropic birds as well. During the whole week, we have been fascinated with every single species that we have been able to see here in this rather tiny archipelago. They all have claimed our interest in many different ways: they were strange, beautiful, unique, and even grotesque, but perhaps the most interesting reason has been that they have all adapted to their environment in manifold marvelous ways, and that is simply admirable!
