Española Island
Our expedition started at 8 o’clock: as soon as we set foot at Punta Suarez, on Española Island, we realize how beautiful this island is, with its incredible fauna and flora among which high levels of endemism make this place one of the most outstanding and successful outings with our guests. Upon landing, our “welcome committee” this morning consisted of lots of sea lions, marine iguanas, the Española mocking bird, brilliant Sally Lightfoot crabs and more. Along our hike through the native arid zone vegetation, we had a fortunate encounter with the major natural predator of the island, perched on a high spot: the Galápagos hawk. The trail proceeded to lead us through the heart of the breeding grounds of the waved albatross, where we sat mesmerized by the amazing courtship dance of these enormous birds. The end of the trail led us to the edge of the island, overlooking spectacular cliffs under hundreds of flying birds. We sat here for awhile, enjoying the charming scenery and applauding the explosive action of a very active blow hole.
Later, back aboard ship, we were treated to a great Ecuadorian buffet, with the most popular Ecuadorian dishes from the three regions of our country – and afterwards the most valued of our local traditions: a siesta!
We spent the whole afternoon in pursuit of a variety of water activities, such as: deep water snorkeling, glass bottom boating, kayaking, and strolling along the sparkling white beach. During each of these activities, our guests had the opportunity to explore the underwater ecosystem of one of the largest marine reserves in the world: in the water and from the glass bottom boat we saw a countless variety of colorful tropical fish, sea lions, a sea turtle, a tiger moray eel and a huge marble ray. On the beach we were mesmerized by those cute sea lions resting and rolling on this nice white sandy beach, made up of the ground skeleton of reef-building coral.
Before sunset we returned to the Polaris to have the cocktail of the day served by our bartender, whilst we settled in for our daily recapitulation presented by natural history staff. Thus a day has gone by here in this paradise named Galápagos.
Our expedition started at 8 o’clock: as soon as we set foot at Punta Suarez, on Española Island, we realize how beautiful this island is, with its incredible fauna and flora among which high levels of endemism make this place one of the most outstanding and successful outings with our guests. Upon landing, our “welcome committee” this morning consisted of lots of sea lions, marine iguanas, the Española mocking bird, brilliant Sally Lightfoot crabs and more. Along our hike through the native arid zone vegetation, we had a fortunate encounter with the major natural predator of the island, perched on a high spot: the Galápagos hawk. The trail proceeded to lead us through the heart of the breeding grounds of the waved albatross, where we sat mesmerized by the amazing courtship dance of these enormous birds. The end of the trail led us to the edge of the island, overlooking spectacular cliffs under hundreds of flying birds. We sat here for awhile, enjoying the charming scenery and applauding the explosive action of a very active blow hole.
Later, back aboard ship, we were treated to a great Ecuadorian buffet, with the most popular Ecuadorian dishes from the three regions of our country – and afterwards the most valued of our local traditions: a siesta!
We spent the whole afternoon in pursuit of a variety of water activities, such as: deep water snorkeling, glass bottom boating, kayaking, and strolling along the sparkling white beach. During each of these activities, our guests had the opportunity to explore the underwater ecosystem of one of the largest marine reserves in the world: in the water and from the glass bottom boat we saw a countless variety of colorful tropical fish, sea lions, a sea turtle, a tiger moray eel and a huge marble ray. On the beach we were mesmerized by those cute sea lions resting and rolling on this nice white sandy beach, made up of the ground skeleton of reef-building coral.
Before sunset we returned to the Polaris to have the cocktail of the day served by our bartender, whilst we settled in for our daily recapitulation presented by natural history staff. Thus a day has gone by here in this paradise named Galápagos.
