FINALLY SOME BOOBIES

WEATHER: Overcast in the morning but the sun shone in all its glory in the afternoon

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The beautiful beach of Espanola Island

BUMMER OF THE DAY: A little too cool to swim in the morning

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Sea iguana, Albatross, Gulls, Red Tailed Tropics, Sea Lions, Galapagos Doves, Mockingbirds, Galapagos Finches, Nasca Boobies, Blue Footed Boobies, Lava Lizards, Baby Blue Footed Boobies

WORD OF THE DAY:  ‘I love boobies’ (of the Blue footed variety)

Well I may have finally caught up on my sleep waking before the ships alarm at 6.15am.  Time to catch up on the blog now and I am just about there. 

It is a ‘busy’ morning.  There is a lot going on and there seemed to be a little confusion on what we needed to take on what part of the morning.  This may have just been Amy and I, but we got there in the end.  This morning there was a few options.  They were doing some kayaking with departures that were leaving at 8.30am, 9.00am and 9.30am.  I wasn’t going to push my luck and get into a kayak, but Amy signed up for the 9.30am departure.  So the people who were not doing the kayaking or the later 2 departures of kayaking could leave for the beach to spend some time there before doing their excursion.  On top of that, after those excursions we were going for a deep water snorkeling straight form the beach.  See it is all a little confusing right.

So Aimes and I set off at 8.30am for the 5 minute ride to Gardner Bay and its beautiful white sand beach in the ‘panga’ (zodiac).  It is a shame that the weather is a little overcast as it was a snorkeling morning this morning.  There were heaps of sea lions swimming and would have been a perfect opportunity to try and get in the water with them again.  We have bought our gear with us in the positive spirit that Jimbob has taught me and that maybe the sun was going to poke through miraculously at some stage. 

Espanola Island is the oldest and the southernmost island in the chain. Its remote location helped make it a unique jewel with a large number of endemic creatures. Secluded from the other islands, wildlife on Espanola adapted to the island's environment and natural resources. The subspecies of Marine iguana from Espanola are the only ones that change color during breeding season.   The English named it Hood Island after Viscount Samuel Hood and is considered, along with Santa Fe, as one of the oldest, at approximately four million years.

Geographically Espanola is a classic example of a shield volcano, created from a single caldera in the center of the island. Over the years as the island has moved further away from the hot spot, the volcano became extinct and erosion began to occur.   However this island is dying, slowly becoming a rocky, barren land with little or no vegetation. But this does give large bays, with sand and soft shingle which attracts a healthy number of Galapagos Sea Lions. 

Gardner Bay, where we were, is located on the northeastern portion of the island and offers a magnificent long, white sandy beach and when we landed there would have been over 50 sea lions of all ages along the beach.  They are from all different colonies and out of the 50 there were approximately 10 Alfa males and we had to steer clear of these guys should they come too close to us.  They are super aggressive at the moment trying to keep all his females from other mature male sea lions.

   

Even without the sun, the colour of the water was amazing colours of blues and turquoise.  It really was a postcard picture and I can only imagine what the colours would have looked like if only the sun was out.  After dropping off our gear on the beach, Aimes and took a walk past all the sea lions and took a wad of pictures. We basically just zigzagged up and down the beach, between couples, singles, babies, groups of 5 plus, with sea lions oblivious that we were there.  There were also a lot of baby sea lions on the beach.  We have been warned to not get too close to them as like any mother she is very protective of her children.  But most of the mothers were out in the ocean getting food, so they weren’t around and like any other baby they were walking the beach either looking for mum to just chilling and a lot were sleeping.  At one point we saw 3 babies all playing together just like little kids.  They really are super cute and I took a wad of pictures of these guys as well.  Now I know I have taken a gazillion pictures of them already, each day we are in a different location with different scenery so they all look different right.  Right……. (Amy says not so much).

The Hood Mockingbird is also endemic to the island. These brazen birds have no fear of man and frequently land on visitor's heads and shoulders searching for food. It was cool at one point I looked over at Charlie and Lada and Charles had 3 Mockingbirds around him, one sitting on each knee and one walking around checking out his bag.  When you are walking around they follow you like a small dog and they are always around the seals as well.  They look cute, but they really are just ‘always there’.    

At 9.30am Aimes left the beach for her kayaking around the rocks and I took a place on the beach and just enjoyed the serenity of Gardner Bay.  I had to move at one stage as a large Alfa male was within 2m of me and I thought he was going to charge straight through me.  He was on a mission chasing off one of the other males that got too close to his gals.  Yes more than happy to move out of your way mate.  Just after 10.30am it was time for us to leave and head for the deep water snorkeling site.  We passed the La Pinta on the way through so we dropped off a couple and all the camera’s and bags we didn't need to take, cause once we all clamber back into the zodiac apparently all the stuff gets wet.  So I be grudeningly handed my bag in with my camera (it also looked overcast and this was the clincher) and we pushed on to the site.  

Amy and I on day one decided we didn’t need the wetsuits.  We figure we could cope with water temperatures of 20C.  As it was cloudy today, it ‘seemed’ like the water temperatures were let’s say a lot cooler than 20C.  But I knew people were thinking we ‘should’ have got wetsuits so we had no choice but to go in the water.  People were just waiting for us to woose out.  So once we were all kitted up with fins, mask and snorkel, we all took turns by flipping our legs over the edge and taking the plunge.  I am not as nervous I thought I would be doing a deeper dive and not having the safety of the beach in my sights.  As the Galapagos has no reefs, but volcanic rocks, swimming around the cliff edges was still okay as the bottom depth was only a few meters.  But as we rounded the cliff, we got into deeper water and even though I was a little hesitant I ‘just kept swimming’ hoping I wouldn’t run into a shark.  This is my greatest fear, but I kept Shane’s words in the front of my mind that they don’t eat humans…often.  Well it was a little lean on the marine life today.  We saw plenty of fish and a sea lion jumped in not far from where we were and that was pretty much it.  It is very much like African animal watching, you just never know what you will see, they are wild animals and you aren’t guaranteed to see something all the time right?!  It infuriates me that people complain that they didn’t see much this morning.  Furious I tell you.

Amy and I stuck it out for around 30 minutes and the water just got too cold for us, so we swam to the waiting zodiac, climbed the stairs that were thrown over the side and waited for more people to have had enough.  Once Amy and I were on board, a lot of people started to swim back to the zodiac, so all it takes is someone to be the first and then they all come a flocking!  Thank goodness they had the stairs to get us into the zodiac, as I would have no idea how else I would have got my fay arse back in there.   Once we had a full zodiac of people it was time to return back to La Pinta.  It’s hard to believe how much we actually do before lunch; it feels like we have been going all day and not just half a day.  That is the only thing against cruising like this is that there isn’t a spare minute to just chillax on the boat for a whole morning or afternoon, but then I guess you could do that anywhere right.  We are in the Galapagos after all and need to savor every second! 

Lunch was served and we had 2 spare hours till our afternoon landing at Punta Suarez.  Found on the western tip of Espanola, Punta Suarez offers great wildlife such as sea lions, sea birds and the largest marine iguanas of Galapagos.  It was a dry water landing, so we could step off the zodiac straight into a manmade pier, but they didn’t account for the 5 sea lions that blocked our path to get from the water to land.  We had to gingerly step around 3 of them to pass and no exaggeration my foot was 45cm from a sea lions head as we passed.  A little scary, but they did look sleepy and their care factor was very low, but there is just that thing at the back of your mind that they are wild animals.  We split into two groups and after leaving the sea lions and all the cute cute babies we made our way across inland.  There were hundreds if marine iguana as we were walking along the designated path and you really needed to watch where you were walking as they were just lying all over the rocky path. They are also a little scary and if they are in the way they don’t care either, so we had to side step a bunch of them and my foot would have been only 20cm from them.  But they spit, it is salt and saliva mainly as they need to expel the salt from the saltwater that they drink.  So not only are they the ugliest animal they are also disgusting to boot. 

Along the path we also encountered our first Blue Footed Boobie.  I have heard so much about these guys and the little dance that they do from Massimo, so I really was looking forward to seeing them.  They really are a beautiful bird and since blue is my favorite colour that probably helps in the bird liking department.  Once again these birds are not afraid of humans and this ‘Boobie’ was only ½ meter away while we are all standing there snapping our photos.  He just kept in preening and doing his thing.  The amount of wildlife was overwhelming. We followed the trail to the cliff's edge where masked boobies were found nesting among the rock formations. Half the rocks are white, which is from all the bird poop that has been dropped over time, it makes for good photos for some depth, and surprisingly it wasn’t that smelly, but it was quite windy, so that may have helped in the smell department.  After a short walk down to a beach and back up the other side blue-footed boobies were seen nesting just off the trail.  Not far though, like 3m, so once again a perfect opportunity for photos.  We also saw a 3 month old chick getting feed by its mother and he pretty much puts his whole head inside his mother’s mouth to take out what is being offered.  It was pretty amazing to watch and where in the world would birds let you get this close in the wild.  It is just magic here and the wildlife accepts up with no stress of worries.  Each island has only a small part opened to the public, to minimize the impact to the animals, so if they didn’t like the intrusion they could go to another part of the island if they wanted, so it isn’t like they have no choice to see us or not.    There were Albatrosses and gulls and Red-tailed Tropic birds swooping overhead as we walked along riding the hot air currents and they were amazing to watch as some of them were literally only 10m above us and to see their true wing span was incredible.

Continuing down the trail we came to the only place where waved albatross nest in the islands. Some 12,000 pairs nest on Espanola each year. The feeling is very dramatic and it seems like a desolate wilderness as the wave’s crash on the jagged cliffs below and the blowhole shoots water 15-30 meters into the air. The sky above is full of sea birds including red-billed tropicbirds, American Oystercatchers, swallow-tailed gulls, and Audubon's Shearwater.  The Waved Albatrosses, from March to January, has almost the entire world population breeds on the island.  When we arrived at the cliffs that feel into the ocean there was an Albatross ready to take flight for the first time.  It was funny to watch as he would take a run up, stop, flap some wings, back up, look over the edge, back up and then he just ran up and lifted off up over the cliff and took his first flaps as an adult.  They call this Albatross Airport and we saw 2 more do the same thing.  It was an amazing event to have witnessed.  They have to do this first flight by a certain time of the year, as they are massive birds they need the right current to help them lift off the cliffs.  If they leave it too long the wind current changes directions and they can’t fly off on just their own accord.  The island's steep cliffs serve as the perfect runways for these large birds, which take off for their ocean feeding grounds near the mainland of Ecuador and Peru abandoning the island between January and March. Known as endemic to the island, Espanola is the waved albatross's only nesting place. Each April male Albatross return to Espanola followed shortly thereafter by their mates. Mating for life, their ritual begins with the male's annual dance to re-attract his mate. The performance can take up to 5 days consisting of a series of strutting, honking, and beak fencing. Once the pair is reacquainted they produce a single egg and share the responsibility of incubation. The colony remains based on Espanola until December when the chick is fully grown. By January most of the colony leaves the island to fish along the Humboldt Current. Young albatross do not return to Espanola until their 4th or 5th year when they return to seek a mate.

It was a great afternoon, as we hooked in a circular direction back to the pier and to the La Pinta.  Again there were seals blocking the path over the rocks and we had to side step a mother sea lion and her baby, which is a little more tricky as we didn’t want her to think that we were a threat, so we side stepped around her, once again only 40cm from her head and there is a fear factor there that she will open her eyes, freak out and try and bite you.  But needless to say we all made it past her okay to then be confronted with a sea lion that had blood all over her just near the zodiac.  I thought she had been attacked till we saw a little pup hiding down in the rocks.  She had just given birth.  Now THAT you don’t get to see every day.  Congratulations Missy!!!!!

Tonight was our last dinner with ‘The Team’.  Charles and Lada leave us tomorrow and we are going to miss you guy’s xx.  Those 3 nights just flew past, but we will see you both again.  Amy and I have invited ourselves to come and visit in June/July next year, so this is a farewell for now and not goodbye.  It was nice to meet a fellow Facebooker who understands its importance and we will make firm Facebook buddies and some people you meet and just click with and you guys were that for us. 

Another BIG day calls for ANOTHER early night.  So goodnight from me and goodnight from Amy.

We are loving the Galapagos and each day is better than the last.  What an amazing part of the world.