Española Island
Today we had a good group of eager walkers. We disembarked in Punta Suarez, a point located in Española Island, the southeastern most island in Galápagos.
At the landing spot we saw many baby sea lions, only a few days old; one of them was only hours old. It was amazing to see the way their moms show their young ones how to swim. Mothers push their babies to the water, maybe to clean them too. Babies don’t like the water at the beginning, and try to get out of it. We saw one swimming towards the rock, but his mom kept pushing him again to the ocean. After a while of this little battle, baby and mom were so tired that they came back to rest on the sandy area.
Later on, we passed by a colony of marine iguanas, Nazca boobies and blue-footed boobies; we were surprised to find out that among the blue footed-booby colony, some Galápagos albatrosses danced their courtship displays. It was great so see the coordination of their movements. On the way back we encountered a couple of oyster catchers making rare sounds; we passed by them and few minutes after, one of our fellow naturalists got a great picture of them mating.
In the afternoon we explored the underwater world by swimming and snorkeling in Gardner Bay. The water was clear, nice and warm; we saw a lot fish and rays. Late in the afternoon, we all came back on board with fond memories of Española Island.
Today we had a good group of eager walkers. We disembarked in Punta Suarez, a point located in Española Island, the southeastern most island in Galápagos.
At the landing spot we saw many baby sea lions, only a few days old; one of them was only hours old. It was amazing to see the way their moms show their young ones how to swim. Mothers push their babies to the water, maybe to clean them too. Babies don’t like the water at the beginning, and try to get out of it. We saw one swimming towards the rock, but his mom kept pushing him again to the ocean. After a while of this little battle, baby and mom were so tired that they came back to rest on the sandy area.
Later on, we passed by a colony of marine iguanas, Nazca boobies and blue-footed boobies; we were surprised to find out that among the blue footed-booby colony, some Galápagos albatrosses danced their courtship displays. It was great so see the coordination of their movements. On the way back we encountered a couple of oyster catchers making rare sounds; we passed by them and few minutes after, one of our fellow naturalists got a great picture of them mating.
In the afternoon we explored the underwater world by swimming and snorkeling in Gardner Bay. The water was clear, nice and warm; we saw a lot fish and rays. Late in the afternoon, we all came back on board with fond memories of Española Island.
