Española Island
A week has past already, and now we are on the eastern extreme of the archipelago, visiting the island of Española. The oldest volcano among the actual Galápagos group, Española is outstanding for the high numbers of endemic species living here, related to the geography and weather conditions that prevail in this section of the islands.
Gardner Bay is a complex array consisting in three islets facing a 2800 ft long white coralline beach. This place is the one we visited in the morning and there, we were delighted by the Galápagos sea lions. Not only their presence but also being able to learn about their behavior while watching them walking, rolling or swimming. Witnessing how much care a mother puts on her baby is a heart softener of great magnitude! We also found a royal tern, which is a bird that visits the archipelago as a drifter.
The snorkeling session was fascinating and there were tuna fish hunting in the vicinities of our swimming spot. A young sea lion accompanied the snorkelers for a while entertaining us with its abilities as a swimmer. Then, all of the sudden it was lunch time. Life is good!
The next location to visit in the afternoon is Punta Suarez which is the western-most point of this beautiful island. Here we were surrounded by several sea lions and a bull was patrolling its rather small but obviously productive territory, since there were numerous females. The Hood mockingbirds came as usual to check on us, carried just by curiosity. Of course sighting the albatrosses was just great, considering that we were able to count as many as 15 pre-fledglings. The kids are just moving around in their search before they can actually take flight.
However, the most outstanding sighting of the day made by our video chronicler was that one of a common nighthawk, a vagrant that has been reported but five or six times before in the Galápagos.
This has been one more week of the many we spend walking the trails, interpreting the islands for whoever is interested, and discovering new things. One more week that ends with the satisfaction of being given more that what we could ever give to the islands.
A week has past already, and now we are on the eastern extreme of the archipelago, visiting the island of Española. The oldest volcano among the actual Galápagos group, Española is outstanding for the high numbers of endemic species living here, related to the geography and weather conditions that prevail in this section of the islands.
Gardner Bay is a complex array consisting in three islets facing a 2800 ft long white coralline beach. This place is the one we visited in the morning and there, we were delighted by the Galápagos sea lions. Not only their presence but also being able to learn about their behavior while watching them walking, rolling or swimming. Witnessing how much care a mother puts on her baby is a heart softener of great magnitude! We also found a royal tern, which is a bird that visits the archipelago as a drifter.
The snorkeling session was fascinating and there were tuna fish hunting in the vicinities of our swimming spot. A young sea lion accompanied the snorkelers for a while entertaining us with its abilities as a swimmer. Then, all of the sudden it was lunch time. Life is good!
The next location to visit in the afternoon is Punta Suarez which is the western-most point of this beautiful island. Here we were surrounded by several sea lions and a bull was patrolling its rather small but obviously productive territory, since there were numerous females. The Hood mockingbirds came as usual to check on us, carried just by curiosity. Of course sighting the albatrosses was just great, considering that we were able to count as many as 15 pre-fledglings. The kids are just moving around in their search before they can actually take flight.
However, the most outstanding sighting of the day made by our video chronicler was that one of a common nighthawk, a vagrant that has been reported but five or six times before in the Galápagos.
This has been one more week of the many we spend walking the trails, interpreting the islands for whoever is interested, and discovering new things. One more week that ends with the satisfaction of being given more that what we could ever give to the islands.
