Española Island
Hood mockingbirds exist only on Española Island. Lava lizards are unique from here, too. The marine iguanas here are the most colorful of the archipelago, and the waved albatross only nests in this unique place. Española Island is definitely one of the highlights of our Galápagos trip.
On the northeastern side of Española is Gardner Bay, a white coralline beach home to hundreds of sea lions. We woke up in this beautiful cove where our first departure of kayakers took place. After breakfast we were ready to start the exploration of the underwater world of the Galápagos. We snorkeled with thousands of tropical and subtropical fish and we all enjoyed of curious juvenile sea lions that came to play with us. Some of our guests preferred to practice their snorkeling skills from the beach. At the end we all enjoyed of a peaceful walk at the bay where we had smiling sea lions ready to pose for our cameras.
In the afternoon we moved to a different location. Punta Suarez is on the western side of the island, and this is one of the favorite nesting sites of waved albatross. This species is the largest seabird we have in the islands, but it is the smallest albatross of the world. The walk took us through nesting sites of blue-footed bobbies, Nazca bobbies and off course the albatrosses. Some of our guests were very lucky to witness an albatross chick hatching from its egg, some others saw snakes mating. We all enjoyed an amazing landscape at the cliff from where albatross will take off.
We came back to our ship with the sunset. We left Española Island behind ready to continue with our adventure.
