Hood Island
Today we had an amazing day at the oldest island in the Galápagos, Hood, located on the southeastern most area of the archipelago, where we found lots of wildlife activity. Our journey began on Punta Suarez. As we arrived, we encountered many Galápagos sea lions. One of the females showed marks that clearly indicated that she had recently given birth, as her new born still had the umbilical cord, and the placenta was next to them. Two Galápagos hawks were waiting to get the afterbirth of the sea lion.
During our walk, some of our guests were surprised by unique marine iguanas. The iguanas of Hood are the most colorful ones, but we encountered some pretty special iguanas, like the one on the picture that had six toes, or the iguana we found resting on the rocks while some Hood mockingbirds pecked at her wounded tail. Later on a large cactus, a finch came to chase the mockingbirds away and started behaving just like them, pecking the tail of the iguana to get something to eat. Perhaps the long drought is making some of the species of animals to change their normal diet and a finch like this one to change its seed preference for animal protein.
We visited also the nesting colony of Galápagos waved albatross and found some of the youngsters doing just fine. Their plumage is almost ready so they will soon fly offshore, where they will stay for several years before they return to Galápagos to breed.
Our afternoon was really exciting. Some of our guests had a great time taking a stroll along the beach, while others went snorkeling from the beach, and many took the option of snorkeling in deep water around “Tortuga Islet”or went on the glass bottom boat. Pretty much every body had the opportunity to look at fish and play with sea lions and had a wonderful time on Gardner bay.
Today we had an amazing day at the oldest island in the Galápagos, Hood, located on the southeastern most area of the archipelago, where we found lots of wildlife activity. Our journey began on Punta Suarez. As we arrived, we encountered many Galápagos sea lions. One of the females showed marks that clearly indicated that she had recently given birth, as her new born still had the umbilical cord, and the placenta was next to them. Two Galápagos hawks were waiting to get the afterbirth of the sea lion.
During our walk, some of our guests were surprised by unique marine iguanas. The iguanas of Hood are the most colorful ones, but we encountered some pretty special iguanas, like the one on the picture that had six toes, or the iguana we found resting on the rocks while some Hood mockingbirds pecked at her wounded tail. Later on a large cactus, a finch came to chase the mockingbirds away and started behaving just like them, pecking the tail of the iguana to get something to eat. Perhaps the long drought is making some of the species of animals to change their normal diet and a finch like this one to change its seed preference for animal protein.
We visited also the nesting colony of Galápagos waved albatross and found some of the youngsters doing just fine. Their plumage is almost ready so they will soon fly offshore, where they will stay for several years before they return to Galápagos to breed.
Our afternoon was really exciting. Some of our guests had a great time taking a stroll along the beach, while others went snorkeling from the beach, and many took the option of snorkeling in deep water around “Tortuga Islet”or went on the glass bottom boat. Pretty much every body had the opportunity to look at fish and play with sea lions and had a wonderful time on Gardner bay.
