Española Island
We navigated toward the southeastern side of the Galápagos archipelago, and arrived at Española; this time our expedition has led us to the oldest of all the enchanted islands. We made a wet landing on one of the most beautiful white sand beaches on this planet, a place covered by the playful endemic Galápagos sea lions, surrounded by a very clear ocean and beautiful weather for us to enjoy the morning outing.
Some of us had the chance to go and explore the surroundings of Gardner Islet by practicing deep-water snorkeling. Kayaking trips were successful, for we spotted some Pacific green sea turtles and several schools of many types of fish swimming by our kayaks.
There was a lot to explore in this place, with many endemic species to the Galápagos, but the most interesting part was that many of the species on Espanola are only found here. Espanola, being the oldest land mass in the archipelago, allowed species to have a longer time for geographical isolation and isolation of behavior, as these are the two main biological processes that help speciation occur.
During the afternoon’s outing we were refreshed by some rain, as we are just at the end of the rainy season. After a dry landing on Punta Suarez, we were welcomed by many sea lion pups that were waiting for their mothers to come back from the daily fishing routine. Sea lion pups are some of the cutest creatures in this world; you can just imagine what it feels like to be surrounded by many of them playing and enjoying the tide pools while is raining.
As we explored further into the island many species of endemic birds were spotted, such as Nazca boobies, blue-footed boobies, Galápagos doves and Darwin’s finches. We cannot forget about the numerous marine iguanas which were perfectly camouflaged on the dark lava rocks. The top predator of the food chain in the Galápagos also lives on this island and he patrols, looking for any pray he will prefer. I am talking about the Galápagos Hawk, being one of the last Galápagos arrivals as a species; it is an elegant looking endemic raptor.
The oldest of the jewels in the crown, Española is a microcosm for evolution in its most pure flavor, a territory where time and isolation rule the existence of new creatures, unique to this island, unique to this world. Time has blessed this island with age, but age that causes life to appear, age that gives birth to special living beings …
