Española Island
Today we visited Española Island. This wonderful island is the eastern most one of the Galápagos archipelago. This island is at the same time a favorite for some marine bird species, especially for the endemic waved Albatross. Last time I visited this island was two months ago. On that occasion I spotted a few juvenile albatross on the trail. I thought to myself that they were not going to make it. The chicks were very small and it was too late in the season for them to learn to fly. Today I felt very happy to observe a couple of these juvenile albatross still alive. The young birds look very healthy practicing their last flying lessons. Their parents were flying around, waiting for them to be ready to take a long journey to the south together. Waved albatross have to fly almost two thousand miles away from the Galápagos. They will follow the prevailing trade winds and the cold Humboldt Current to the south of Chile. Adult albatross will be coming back in about three months to Española Island again for breeding. We were very lucky to see the probably the last albatross of this season.
In the afternoon we anchored in paradisiacal Gardner Bay. Many of our guests opted to practice deep water snorkel in a nearby islet. A big number of colorful fish species, diamond sting rays resting on the sea floor and invertebrates like sea cucumbers were observed. After snorkeling we stroll along a beautiful coralline beach where we stretched our legs. On the whitest sand you can imagine we have time to mingle with the local inhabitants, a very large Galápagos sea lion colony with many babies and curious Española mockingbirds. We finally came back on board late in the day to the National Geographic Polaris, our home this week. Our companion was a majestic sunset that gave a golden finale to a fantastic day in the enchanted islands.
Today we visited Española Island. This wonderful island is the eastern most one of the Galápagos archipelago. This island is at the same time a favorite for some marine bird species, especially for the endemic waved Albatross. Last time I visited this island was two months ago. On that occasion I spotted a few juvenile albatross on the trail. I thought to myself that they were not going to make it. The chicks were very small and it was too late in the season for them to learn to fly. Today I felt very happy to observe a couple of these juvenile albatross still alive. The young birds look very healthy practicing their last flying lessons. Their parents were flying around, waiting for them to be ready to take a long journey to the south together. Waved albatross have to fly almost two thousand miles away from the Galápagos. They will follow the prevailing trade winds and the cold Humboldt Current to the south of Chile. Adult albatross will be coming back in about three months to Española Island again for breeding. We were very lucky to see the probably the last albatross of this season.
In the afternoon we anchored in paradisiacal Gardner Bay. Many of our guests opted to practice deep water snorkel in a nearby islet. A big number of colorful fish species, diamond sting rays resting on the sea floor and invertebrates like sea cucumbers were observed. After snorkeling we stroll along a beautiful coralline beach where we stretched our legs. On the whitest sand you can imagine we have time to mingle with the local inhabitants, a very large Galápagos sea lion colony with many babies and curious Española mockingbirds. We finally came back on board late in the day to the National Geographic Polaris, our home this week. Our companion was a majestic sunset that gave a golden finale to a fantastic day in the enchanted islands.
