Española Island
Today was our first full day in Galápagos. Española Island is one of the most spectacular places to visit in the entire archipelago. In the morning we disembarked on a small cement dock at Punta Suarez and followed a very rocky trail. All along this boulder strewn path is extraordinary, fearless wildlife.
As we landed, we were delighted by sea lions of all ages swimming, playing and resting near the shoreline. There were also brightly colored marine iguanas, brilliant red sally light foot crabs, mockingbirds, and lava lizards. All of these creatures either investigated us or ignored us and it almost seemed they were a welcoming committee waiting for us to arrive. We hiked inland among nesting Nazca boobies and watched a pair of blue-footed boobies doing the first courtship dance of this season.
In the afternoon we explored the marvelous realm of one of the world’s spectacular natural aquariums: the Galápagos Marine Reserve. The number and variety of fishes we found during our snorkeling outing amazed our guests. Galápagos is a paradise and not just for the terrestrial birds and animals. This is an area of ocean current convergence and the marine life is rich and varied. Cold, upwelling waters rich in nutrients and plankton are the base for the complex marine food web. Much of the plankton consists of eggs or larval organisms that have been carried here from great distances by the currents. These organisms may travel thousands of miles and are the reason that we find fishes from Central America, South America and the Indo-Pacific all sharing the marine habitats of these Enchanted Islands.
Today was our first full day in Galápagos. Española Island is one of the most spectacular places to visit in the entire archipelago. In the morning we disembarked on a small cement dock at Punta Suarez and followed a very rocky trail. All along this boulder strewn path is extraordinary, fearless wildlife.
As we landed, we were delighted by sea lions of all ages swimming, playing and resting near the shoreline. There were also brightly colored marine iguanas, brilliant red sally light foot crabs, mockingbirds, and lava lizards. All of these creatures either investigated us or ignored us and it almost seemed they were a welcoming committee waiting for us to arrive. We hiked inland among nesting Nazca boobies and watched a pair of blue-footed boobies doing the first courtship dance of this season.
In the afternoon we explored the marvelous realm of one of the world’s spectacular natural aquariums: the Galápagos Marine Reserve. The number and variety of fishes we found during our snorkeling outing amazed our guests. Galápagos is a paradise and not just for the terrestrial birds and animals. This is an area of ocean current convergence and the marine life is rich and varied. Cold, upwelling waters rich in nutrients and plankton are the base for the complex marine food web. Much of the plankton consists of eggs or larval organisms that have been carried here from great distances by the currents. These organisms may travel thousands of miles and are the reason that we find fishes from Central America, South America and the Indo-Pacific all sharing the marine habitats of these Enchanted Islands.
