Today we visited Española, one of the oldest islands of the Archipelago, also one of the most beautiful islands of the Galapagos. Early in the morning, the National Geographic Islander anchored at Gardner Bay, in front of a beautiful sandy beach. While one group of guest went to do deep water snorkeling around Gardner Islet, other group went to the beach. A big group of Galapagos sea lions and the Española mockingbird welcomed us.
Later, we had a wonderful Ecuadorian lunch. Lunch included a great variety of traditional meals from the coast and the Andes of this beautiful country, including ceviche, yapingachos, suckling pig and alfajores.
In the afternoon, we set foot on Punta Suarez, a paradise to observe sea birds. As we walked along the trail, we spotted a few waved albatrosses, endemic to Espanola. These are the first adults that arrived to this island to reproduce this year. We also observed several nests and chicks of the Nazca booby, one of the three species of boobies that breed in the Galapagos.
Española is also home of the Christmas marine iguana, one of the seven sub species of marine iguanas that exist in the Archipelago. Female marine iguanas were very active, digging their nests on open areas free of vegetation. We were able to witness several fights between females that were competing for space to dig their nests. Finally, the sunset at 6 pm and that was a perfect way to finish a wonderful day.
