Hood Island
This is one of the islands with the richest wild life, and being the oldest, it has a high degree of endemism. Right after we disembarked we saw almost everything that can be seen: marine iguanas sun bathing, sea lions both on the shore and in the water, and dancing blue-footed boobies.
Punta Suarez is well known because of its sea birds. Big colonies of Nazca boobies can be seen here all year round; however this is a very interesting season for blue-booted boobies. They are breeding right now, and indeed we saw them performing their beautiful courtship, which implies the offering of twigs, feet displays, and sky pointing with beak and tail.
We also found several swallow-tailed gulls all along the cliffs. One of the highlights was spotting waved albatrosses both in flight and on the ground. Espanola is the home island of the waved albatrosses, which nest only here and nowhere else in the world. This island has a perfect topography, high cliffs with flat tops ideal for them in order to take off. They come to Hood Island from April to December and only to breed. At the end of December they fly toward the South American continent, staying several miles off shore the Peruvian coast.
In the afternoon we focused in water activities. Our guests came back fascinated with the rich and diverse marine ecosystem. It was a great day!
This is one of the islands with the richest wild life, and being the oldest, it has a high degree of endemism. Right after we disembarked we saw almost everything that can be seen: marine iguanas sun bathing, sea lions both on the shore and in the water, and dancing blue-footed boobies.
Punta Suarez is well known because of its sea birds. Big colonies of Nazca boobies can be seen here all year round; however this is a very interesting season for blue-booted boobies. They are breeding right now, and indeed we saw them performing their beautiful courtship, which implies the offering of twigs, feet displays, and sky pointing with beak and tail.
We also found several swallow-tailed gulls all along the cliffs. One of the highlights was spotting waved albatrosses both in flight and on the ground. Espanola is the home island of the waved albatrosses, which nest only here and nowhere else in the world. This island has a perfect topography, high cliffs with flat tops ideal for them in order to take off. They come to Hood Island from April to December and only to breed. At the end of December they fly toward the South American continent, staying several miles off shore the Peruvian coast.
In the afternoon we focused in water activities. Our guests came back fascinated with the rich and diverse marine ecosystem. It was a great day!
