Another day in paradise…
First thing this morning we headed out from the Galaxy boat to Española Island and landed on an incredible white sand beach lined with sea lions lounging in the sun. We meandered along the beach, taking photo after photo of sea lions.
Eventually we reached a rocky are and found lovely marine iguanas basking in the sun on top of black volcanic rocks.
“Can we go snorkeling?” my son begged. The turquoise blue waters filled with frolicking sea lions was too much for him to resist. We donned masks and snorkels and headed in amongst sea lions and fish of every color in the rainbow.
In the afternoon we headed out once again – this time for a walk around the island. When we disembarked from the dinghy, we stepped onto volcanic rocks smothered with hundreds of marine iguanas. Big iguanas, small iguanas, iguanas hiding in the crevices, and iguanas sprawled on top of rocks. Iguanas, iguanas, iguanas.
The amazing thing about the iguanas is that they are utterly fearless. We stepped over and around them, and we crouched down and pointed cameras at them mere inches from their unflinching eyes. As I wandered around enjoying the marine iguanas, I listened to the honking of sea lions playing in the waves.
We slowly meandered toward the other side of the island where we walked through a nesting area for blue-footed boobies. Baby boobies with white feet and fluffy down rather than feather sat in the middle of the trail, completely unperturbed when we stepped over and around them.
A while later, we entered into a nesting area of the nazca boobie – on cliffs towering above crashing waves below. Lava lizards scurried around our feet, and a blow hole hissed each time a wave crashed into it.
Enormous wave albatrosses and Galapagos hawks also nest on the island, and marine iguanas dig holes in the one sandy spot in order to lay their eggs. We spent a delightful couple hours watching all the activity.
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You may be interested in these articles about our visit to various islands:
A brief history of the Galapagos Islands
The Galapagos Islands from John Vogel on Vimeo.
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