Sunday 21 May 2017

Espanola Island, Galapagos. Animal Paradise. 15th May 2017


Monday 15th May 2017

Espanola Island - The southernmost island with the densest and most diversified concentration of wildlife.

Early start for dry land visit to Punta Suarez. Three hour walk along the beach initially then some very treacherous volcanic rock paths.  The landing point was littered with Galapagos Sea Lion, nicely disguised among the rocks. Also swarming with red Sally Lightfoot crabs. Then numerous marine iguana with their unique copper-red patches, some as many as 20x piled on top of each other, starting to warm up. Also welcomed by Mockingbirds who showed no fear whatsoeEver. They were coming right up to us (and pecked Roberto), probably to beg for fresh water. We were warned that however kind it may seem, we shouldn’t change their habits and allow them to rely on tourists for water.  Another bird was the Nazca Booby which used to be called the Inca Booby, which looked like it was wearing a mask.  As we continued towards a high cliff area, we came across numerous Waved Albatross, some with eggs in ground nests. One pair were nested right on the path but seemed to accept people walking past just feet away.  We were also treated to a display by the Galapagos Hawk who used the cliff thermals to buzz past us on a few occasions.  At the cliff side was Soplador, a blow hole which erupted up to 10 metres when the wave was high enough.  At all the sites we just wanted to wait and watch, there was so much activity on air, sea and land going on.

After 3 hours we finally returned to the boat and had a mango juice on arrival. After a short break, lunch was served – a whole fish Bacherale?? – an ugly sucker with big teeth and larger lower jaw - which had nice white meaty flesh.  Served with asparagus, palm hearts and artichokes/olives, plus rice. Weird blancmange pud to finish.

A quick siesta ensued, then at 2pm off to Bahia Garden/Gardener Bay, a pristine white soft sand beach with low scrub backdrop. We stayed on the beach and watched about 50x sea lions with their young, all stretched out and sunning themselves, fast asleep.  Two pups were suckling from their mothers, and one appeared lost, going up to different seals and getting short shrift.  A photographer’s paradise, with the stunning turquoise sea behind.  Went for a dip to cool off, but nothing much to see with the sandy floor.

Then back to the zodiacs and transferred to a snorkelling area.  Dropped in to the water three times, and luckily took my go-pro. Firstly saw some sealions who had finally woken up enough to play in the water.  Followed a few turtles, white-tipped reef shark, manta ray under the rocks, spotted eagle ray, boxfish, very large parrot fish and a pelican watching from the rocks.  Fabulous snorkel, only marred by a few of our group who decided to dive and get in the way just as I was taking a video.

Welcomed back on board with a slice of pizza and a hot chocolate. Yum.

Navigated to San Cristobal Island. After dinner we watched Silk Shark surrounding the boat – there must have been at least 50x of these enormous shark. We soon found out why, when various flying fish came flying through the water, then hit the side of the boat and were rendered unconscious. Weirdly, the sharks then couldn’t detect them, so a sealion was taking his chances and stealing the fish from the middle of the shark.  When a fish zapped off, there was a frenzy of sharks following it and catching it swiftly. Ed was using his torch to spotlight this feeding fest, which went on for over half hour.

The weather then started to get a bit choppy so I decided to go to bed early.

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