Espanola Island
Our last day began with a visit to Gardner Bay, where we had the snorkeling of our lives!!! Not that the previous ones were any bad at all, this one was just incredible. During the week we had it all, or so we thought…today we rejoiced at sea lions literally “playing “ with us in the cold water (70) when powerful noises left us static and astonished: a humpback whale was a few hundred feet away and it was singing!
We could hear it better that in those new age CDs. It was loud, clear, and full of emotion. At first were repetitive, but it turned into a song that went way up and down in the musical scale, probably way beyond our ability to hear…everybody was shivering but no one wanted to get their heads out of the water…it was the most awesome experience I had in years and years in the Galápagos Islands. Not surprisingly, we ended up seeing the whale, so close, so near that it was breathtaking.
After leaving most of our excited guests to enjoy the sea lion filled beach, I took the last round of kayaks to the same location until noon, and one of our paddlers could actually “feel” the singing of our whale through the structure of the Kayak! It was a tender song, that could get tears from another whale.
The afternoon was spent at the other side of the island, Punta Suarez. Our hike was for the search of the albatross. During the entire walk we met blue footed boobies, Nazca boobies, and tropic birds as well, all nesting at the time. Finally, we met the albatross, the most magnificent bird of the Galápagos.
It was a wonderful end for our trip. Tomorrow we say goodbye to these magical islands…
