Española Island
Although today we let most of the guests sleep in until 0800, there were nine of us who chose to rise early and kayak before breakfast. Conditions were perfect: breezy, cool and a calm sea. We were escorted by a group of playful sea lions and had close looks at a pair of oyster catchers and a striated heron. In addition, after this healthy exercise, we deserved the bountiful breakfast that we dug into back on board the National Geographic Islander!
Two Zodiacs of snorkelers headed out for the islet of Gardner where they swam along in clear, calm waters – escorted once again by graceful and friendly sea lions. There were colorful reef fish, a cave we swam into and a huge cloud of zillions of bait fish. The rest of the guests made a wet landing on the lovely fine white sand beach at Gardner Bay. Dozens of female and young sea lions were resting here or snuggled up to their mothers and nursing , while the large beach master males barked and patrolled just off shore. One tiny pup had part of its umbilical cord still intact and had been born only a day or two earlier. A group of curious young male sea lions crawled right up onto our towels and rested their heads on our snorkel bags. Another stuck his nose inside the blue towel bag and then rested his head on my ankle.
Fearless and curious mocking birds, a species that is found only on this island of Española, peeped and hopped among us, inspecting everything with their beady bright eyes. We enjoyed walking the beach, photographing the charming sea lions and at noon we were extremely reluctant to leave.
But the afternoon’s hike at Punta Suarez was every bit as interesting as all the others have been. As we disembarked on a small concrete dock, we discovered the brightly colored marine iguanas of this island and the large endemic lava lizards. Blue footed boobies were nesting and we followed the rocky trail through a Nazca booby colony. Some of us watched a hawk feeding on a freshly killed finch. We overlooked the spouting blow hole and found adult and juvenile albatross chicks in land from the cliff they use for take off. Damp garua mist chilled us as we left Española; we were sorry to be leaving the islands but delighted with our intimate look at the wildlife of these “Islas Encantadas.”
Although today we let most of the guests sleep in until 0800, there were nine of us who chose to rise early and kayak before breakfast. Conditions were perfect: breezy, cool and a calm sea. We were escorted by a group of playful sea lions and had close looks at a pair of oyster catchers and a striated heron. In addition, after this healthy exercise, we deserved the bountiful breakfast that we dug into back on board the National Geographic Islander!
Two Zodiacs of snorkelers headed out for the islet of Gardner where they swam along in clear, calm waters – escorted once again by graceful and friendly sea lions. There were colorful reef fish, a cave we swam into and a huge cloud of zillions of bait fish. The rest of the guests made a wet landing on the lovely fine white sand beach at Gardner Bay. Dozens of female and young sea lions were resting here or snuggled up to their mothers and nursing , while the large beach master males barked and patrolled just off shore. One tiny pup had part of its umbilical cord still intact and had been born only a day or two earlier. A group of curious young male sea lions crawled right up onto our towels and rested their heads on our snorkel bags. Another stuck his nose inside the blue towel bag and then rested his head on my ankle.
Fearless and curious mocking birds, a species that is found only on this island of Española, peeped and hopped among us, inspecting everything with their beady bright eyes. We enjoyed walking the beach, photographing the charming sea lions and at noon we were extremely reluctant to leave.
But the afternoon’s hike at Punta Suarez was every bit as interesting as all the others have been. As we disembarked on a small concrete dock, we discovered the brightly colored marine iguanas of this island and the large endemic lava lizards. Blue footed boobies were nesting and we followed the rocky trail through a Nazca booby colony. Some of us watched a hawk feeding on a freshly killed finch. We overlooked the spouting blow hole and found adult and juvenile albatross chicks in land from the cliff they use for take off. Damp garua mist chilled us as we left Española; we were sorry to be leaving the islands but delighted with our intimate look at the wildlife of these “Islas Encantadas.”
