Galápagos: Day 2

Today our time was spent on Española. The island is uninhabited by humans and teeming with wildlife.

Our first stop was the beach near Gardner's Bay. The ride over to the beach seemed bleak to start with, very cold and rainy. However, not long after being on the beach, the sun started to peak through the clouds and things warmed up. The sand was white and the water was very turquoise nearer to the shore. We walked up and down the beach seeing lots of wildlife. We saw seals, but not as many as yesterday. We saw a ton of iguanas, the big black ones, and some lava lizards which are tan and red.

Yazmany, our guide, is teaching us how to distinguish between male and female. Males for most species are more ornate, except the lava lizards; the females have a red face and the males are plain.

We also saw a lot of crabs, black when babies or small and red when bigger and older. An interesting thing we saw were mockingbirds fighting over a dead crab! Apparently they don't normally eat crab, but they kept fighting over it!

After our morning at the beach we got wetsuits on and went snorkeling near a smaller island nearby. We saw a lot of Dory fish as well as a few sea turtles and sea lions. We also saw a scorpion fish hiding on a rock. My favorite fish we saw was the purple fish with an orange tail. I also found a 'chocolate chip' starfish. It was yellow with black dots. All this before lunchtime!

We had quick showers after snorkeling and before lunch. After lunch we had a bit of downtime before our walk to Suarez Point.

It was a rocky, slow walk, but slow only because of all of the interesting things. Again, we saw a lot of iguanas and lava lizards, but on this island there were special birds only found here. Most notably, the albatross and the Nazca booby are on this island. There were a lot of albatross scattered around the island as well as their babies. Sadly, we did see an abandoned egg, but also saw some albatross take their first flights! The albatross fly from here to Peru at the end of December for a few months before returning to nest at the end of April. Another interesting thing we saw with albatross was a love dance: two albatross with tapping beaks and making noises (and it appeared to be a love triangle/affair!).

We got to see the Nazca boobies. This is the only island where you can see them so it was really special. They have bright yellow eyes and are just beautiful birds. We saw one incubating an egg! As well as Nazca boobies we saw some blue footed boobies. Their feet are so blue! I mean, I guess that's why they have that name, but they are still so blue! We were also lucky enough to see a few hawks.

At Suarez Point there's the blow hole where when a wave comes in, it sprays through a crack in the rocks and looks like the blowhole of a whale! Allan insisted on staying back to get photos of a big blow. It was a great wee walk 😄.

When we got back on board, there was juice and empanadas to snack on before dinner. We also came back to find a small surprise in our room: two swans made of towels with little rose petals, chocolates, and balloons. It was very cute 🌹.

We had our briefing for Floreana island tomorrow and a cocktail making class. Rikki, the bartender, taught us how to make a mojito. He asked for a volunteer to make one after his demonstration, and nobody volunteered, so I did (but it felt like cheating as I've made many a mojito in my bartending days). However, I got to keep the drink I made and mojitos are Allan’s favourite cocktail, so that was a plus after making it in front of everyone.

Dinner was really great again. We had salad, chicken and tomato sauce or tuna and teriyaki sauce with mushroom rice and cauliflower. For dessert there was another surprise. The chef made a special cake for Allan and I. It definitely was not store bought and was the cutest thing and very thoughtful. It was a chocolate cake with a whipped cream frosting. Super delicious and I definitely would've had another slice if it wouldn't make me look like a little pig.

We began a documentary about the dark past of Floreana island after dinner, but Allan and I were both falling asleep (annoyingly because it was very interesting!) so we headed down to our room before it finished. Hopefully someone can get us caught up tomorrow! Tomorrow is going to be a lot of water sports, fingers crossed there is no sunburn!Read more