This morning we arrived from Seymour Island and dropped anchor at Punta Suarez on the island of Española. As soon as we landed, we saw lots of sea lion pups and blue-footed boobies with chicks. The Nazca boobies were so abundant that the whole cliff was white. The marina iguanas are distinct color, which is a mix of black, red and green, and therefore I call them Christmas iguanas.
Since we are getting into the warm and wet season, the finches are starting to get busy by displaying their courtship routines and collecting nesting material. As we continued our walk, we also had the opportunity to see the waved albatrosses, including young ones that are getting ready to leave the island. Where do they go? They fly east to the Pacific coast of Ecuador and down south to Peru.
We also saw the Galápagos hawk, red-billed tropic birds, swallow-tailed gulls and plenty more. We came back on board the National Geographic Endeavour and the guests learned about snorkeling and kayaking safety. Right after this we had a very tasty lunch and time for a siesta. At 3:00pm we went deep water snorkeling, on glass-bottom boat rides and kayaking.
Snorkeling was excellent, we lots of tropical fish, sting rays, and a sea lion came out of nowhere to the surface with a huge fish. It played with the fish for a minute and then left it wounded and we watched it swim away. Right after snorkeling went to Gardner Bay, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in Galápagos. Its sand is like white talcum powder; you can walk on it barefoot and it is so pleasant. Again we saw many sea lions—big males, lot of pups and, of course, the females.
At sunset we came back on board and showered. Cocktail hour took place, followed by our daily recap and a briefing about the activities for the following day. It really was a blasting day.
