Isla Santa María (Floreana) (Cab. En Pto. Velasco Ibarra)

Our last trip in the Galapagos is to the Española island. A 2 hours boat ride from San Cristobal this is the only island where we can see Galapagos Albatroses (waved albatross) nesting, and we were in the right period! We must say that these birds come back 10 months out of 12 to nest here so we were pretty lucky 😁

The boat ride was quite choppy as it is out in the open water away from the shelter of the larger islands, but luckily we were again accompanied by dolphins which made it special. We arrived on espanola and we were again the only group there. On our way to the beach we were welcomed by playful sealions and turtles, even sea iguanas joined the party. It feels almost normal now to see these animals and we are excited to go and see the albatross! We stop on the way though to see up close a lava lizard quite different to those on the other islands. It is more green. We were lucky to find it eating lunch, a tasty spider was still half alive in its mouth. A few seconds later it was totally gone!

On the way we observed the marine iguanas, technically the same iguana species as on Fernandina and all the islands, but these ones eat red algae. This creates red patches on their ski and they use this to show how well they feed, so the reder the better. Quite interesting to see the difference with the other ones we saw! Still the same sneezing and looking for heat though.

A bit further along the path we see a big ball of feathers...a baby albatross was calmly waiting for his parents to come back! Albatross mate for life, they do a whole dance and performance to find a mate and then it's a keeper. They need to be two to protect the egg, and even if the egg may have been fertilised by another single male if the hubby is late on his trip, the female will then tell the single male to get lost until the hubby comes back. If he manages to make it in time then, all is good and the egg will be incubated by the pair. If he doesn't make it back, the egg will need to be abandoned when the female starts to get hungry, one albatross is not enough to keep an egg warm until it hatches. Further down the path, we saw more albatross, most of them with their beak in their feathers to keep warm, but there was one couple who had ust woken up and had a little chat in front of us. They are really beautiful birds and it is really cool to see them up close.

I learnt a long time ago the poem "L'albatros" from Baudelaire and always wanted to see one, tick from the list.
"Souvent, pour s'amuser, les hommes d'équipage
Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers,
Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage,
Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers...."

"Often for sport the crewmen will ensnare
Some albatrosses: vast seabirds that sweep
In lax accompaniment through the air
Behind the ship that skims the bitter deep..."

After we departed the island we went off to do some more snorkeling, all the usual suspects, Turtles, Sea Lions and some fish, its still amazing to see them all effortless glide around under water. Snorkeling here is always a magical experience. 2 hours back across the choppy water and we're back on dry land. Happily this is our last boat journey, we are departing the Galapagos back to the Ecuadorian mainland.This has been an absolutly incredible part of our adventure, we both had very high expectations and have been wanting to see the Galapagos for some time, incredibly our expectations were far exceeded, this is a truly an wondrous place full of intrigue and excitement. We are very glad we got to see this amazing corner of the Pacific.Read more