Española Island
The Galápagos Islands are a unique paradise, and each island has a story to tell. Today’s adventure was at Española Island, and the magnificence of the island impressed us from the moment we began our exploration. We started with deep water snorkeling at Gardner Island. As we dove into the water, a completely charming world was revealed to us: reef fish of many different colors swimming around, playful Galápagos sea lions moving towards us, and the beautiful sunlight made for perfect conditions for enjoy all this. Right as we were preparing to return to the ship, a big aggregation of black stripped salemas swam by and made us feel inside a huge, natural aquarium.
When we returned to National Geographic Islander, it was time to prepare for Gardner Bay beach. When we arrived at the beach we were greeted by the wonder of a big sea lion colony. Sea lions of many different sizes were all over the beach, as if they were congregating for an important meeting. Another companion, the Hood mockingbird was very curious of our camera lenses and came in for close looks — it was likely seeing its own reflection and thinking someone was encroaching on its turf. Once we returned to the ship we enjoyed a delightful Ecuadorian buffet lunch as we sailed to our next destination: Punta Suarez.
Home of seabirds, including the waved albatrosses, Española Island is the oldest of all in the archipelago, and in the afternoon our exploration only improved. Our arrival at Punta Suarez was greeted by Sally Lightfoot crabs that covered the rocks, turning them a bright red color. Farther along the trail, blue-footed boobies played a symphony of sounds as they courted one another on the rocks, Nazca boobies stood in contract to the landscape’s colors — but the main attraction was definitely the waved albatrosses that showed their splendor while courting. On the way back, a Galápagos hawk was spotted standing on a rock.
At the end of the exploration, we enjoyed a fantastic landscape view as the sunset over Punta Suarez. The Galápagos Islands paradise is a wonderful experience that very few on this planet have, and today we had a delightful experience.
