Day 3 - Sea Lions have the cutest little ears — Espanola, Ecuador

  Espanola, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Here is the official itinerary, provided by the tour:
We arrive at Espa?ola Island, the southernmost island of the Galapagos, early in the morning. Visit Gardner Bay which is an excellent swimming and snorkeling site. Later we visit Punta Suarez on the western side of Espa?ola Island (also called Hood) is spectacular: gargantuan waves break on jagged cliffs and large bird colonies thickly populate the interior of the island; there is a distinct feel of desolate wilderness here. The Waved Albatross is seen here from April to December during its mating/nesting season. This bird leaves land between January and March each year to make its annual odyssey far out to sea. Amazingly, Espa?ola is the nesting site to virtually the entire world population of this species, with more than 12000 pairs residing here. Large numbers of masked and blue-footed boobies are also found here, red-billed tropic birds dash madly through the air, and both marine iguanas and sea lions are common. A huge blowhole, where the surf is forced through a natural rock formation spouting seawater 15 to 20 m (49 – 66 ft) into the air, adds to the island’s impression of untamed beauty.Follow the trail through a rookery and learn the geological history of the island from our naturalist, including its dramatic volcanic features, climate, flora and fauna.
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As usual, we were greeted with the lovely morning music and wake up from the boat director at about 6:30AM - After a big buffet breakfast and a cup of coffee, we boarded the pangas for Espanola island. Our morning entailed a visit to a large sea lion colony and about 2 hours of hanging out on the beach. There was no real structure to this landing - We got a little history of the island, the sea lions (how to interact with them..particularly how NOT to interact with the big males on land), the marine iguanas, etc... The rest of the time, we just wandered around and observed the colony and took a walk to the other end of the beach to check out the iguanas. It was really entertaining to play with the young sea lions- They were so curious. One especially brave little guy kept me entertained for a good 30 minutes. My new passenger friend Sara and I threw sand at his flipper he would waddle at us quickly and then lie down and stare- It was really cute!

My father was chased by a really large male which was scary but also kind of funny... He sat on a tree stump for a long time, just observing behavior. 

After a while, I trekked down the white sandy beach about 10 minutes to some old lava rocks where the marine iguanas were hanging out. They were certainly cool to look at, but way less fun than the sea lions. 

We returned to the boat, turned around and got back in the pangas to do some snorkeling. There were interesting caves and reefs right off the cliffs on one part of Espanola. The water was extremely warm so I decided it'd be the last day I would wear a wetsuit. 

Walter snorkeled with us along with Henry... they did a great job pointing out unusual fish and getting some to come out of hiding ! 

Some people chose to only snorkel 30 minutes or so, but I always found it hard to get out of the water when they wanted us back on the boat...

After lunch, we headed back to another part of Espanola to check out the amazing bird population on the island. We took a really nice, rocky walk along some beautiful bright white guano-covered cliffs! The views were quite stunning. It was definitely the most interesting landing of the trip!!!

 We saw Nazca Boobies, Blue Footed Boobies, the Waved Albatross (so many and so many doing the famous dance!), to name a few. Walter went at a very slow pace, stopping at one magnificent cliff to relax, watch the Albatross soar and dance and to just take in the view. 

I'd say we returned to the boat at about 4:30 for a cold Pilsener and another beautiful sunset. 

This was the last full day for those passengers who chose to do a 4D/3N tour. We had a farewell cocktail in the back bar and 2 separate briefings - One for everyone, and another departure briefing for those moving on to other things....

My only negative about this was that we couldn't spend a week with the same group. I absolutely LOVED both groups we had for both parts of the trip, and I could never trade any of them for any others... but I do wish this trip wasn't broken up into two parts, with only a few staying on for the duration. 

 

Side Note: I was under the impression the Galapagos Islands were reserved for a wealthy, older crowd.... I was SO WRONG. Our boat was a 50/50 mix - The age range was between 24 and 77... We had some higher-end travelers who booked a multi-week South American trip entirely through a tour company all the way to budget travelers who arrived in the main Galapagos town of Puerto Ayora looking for a good last-minute deal on a cruise with an empty spot!  Our boat was a superior (or Luxury?? can't recall the actual class) class boat which made me think we wouldn't see many young people - Wrong again.

   The people certainly made the trip extra special. I imagine some people have experienced some tough situations, being cooped up on a boat for a week with the same 16 people. We thought each of our groups throughout the week were really very enjoyable- Every pair brought something different to the group and we all had a fantastic time getting to know one another. Of course, we were all on vacation and in "vacation-mode" so it didn't exactly emulate a real-life scenario but for our trip, we couldn't have asked for a better group of travelers!