Española Island, Gardner Bay & Punta Suarez
The turquoise color of the water gently splashing over the white sand beach is a welcoming sight. Sea lions in the distance, from our deck, looked like smooth boulders that were slowly waking up as the sun came up. The kayaks are ready and an early morning pre-breakfast exercise is a wonderful way to start the day.
It is windy, so we tow the vessels to Gardner Islet where our first adventure of the day begins. We paddle for about an hour along side of the rock formation which, at times, looks like a huge pile of construction waste. We have a funny way or relating to nature’s design. The closer we look, the more life we find in each crevice and air pocket that the lava flow has created. Anemones, sea urchins, sea stars, soft coral and sea lions are the perfect preview of what will soon be our snorkeling excursion.
The announcement to get ready for the deep water snorkeling got everyone up on their toes, the last opportunity to enjoy the rich waters of Galápagos. It was by far the favorite one for all. The clearness of the water, the schools of many fish, the playfulness of the sea lions and the underwater rock formations gave everyone the swim of their lives. The stroll on the white that followed was a reminder of how peaceful the life of the sea lions can be.
The last excursion on Española was the unexpected cherry on top of the ice cream. There were many albatross, nazca boobies, sea lions, marine iguanas, lava lizards, blue footed boobies mating, swallow tail gulls, Galápagos hawks, Hood mockingbirds, red billed tropic birds, American oyster catchers and the colorful marine iguanas. They had us all realizing that although we will leave the islands tomorrow, the islands will never leave us.
