Espanola Island, Gardeners Bay, Galapagos, Ecuador.

Espanola is set in the far southeastern corner of the archipelago, a remote island favourite for its sea bird colonies and wildlife. Espanolas endemic species are found nowhere else in the worls and include mockingbirds, lava lizards and colourful marine iguanas. In the 1970's the giant tortoises were nearly wiped out with only fourteen remaining because of feral goats. the goats were eradicated and a long term repopulation programme was introduced and since the year 2000 they now number over the thousand. We headed out after breakfast to Gardeners Bay which had a beautiful sandy beach, again covered in sea lions. Here we had the option of walking or snorkelling out to a rocky outcrop to explore the deep water around it. I chose the snorkelling along with Heather and Terry. The fin out was longer than anticipated but we made it, trying not to puff to hard. The seas were quite rough with big swells and a fair current. We initially saw a turtle and a variety of fish as we progressed around this small Atoll. We moved to the deeper water and Terry spotted a white tipped reef shark relaxing in a cave. We duck dived down to take a photo and on looking into the cave realised this shark was resting on top of a large emerald ray !!... only in the Galapagos. We spent the next half hour duck diving to view this amazing sight. The shark swam out, around and back into the cave to resume his position. Totally magical. Heather and I swam back to the beach seeing a variety of fish and another small ray. A fantastic start to another great day in these beautiful islands.

At 1030 we got the dinghy out to another rocky island for more snorkelling, however the seas were quite rough, waves were high and so the visibility wasn't good due to the fact that the fine sand was disturbed. Any dive or snorkel to me is fantastic but we called it a day after 30 minutes.

Another lovely lunch on board, a siesta, and back to Suarez Point for a couple of hours walk around this wonderful wildlife heaven. As the seas were rough our pilot had to gauge the waves to get through to the concrete jetty. Judged perfectly we dissected the waves and chugged to the drop off point. We were informed this was a dry landing, when the guide said "go" step off swiftly and move along to the beach. Nicely positioned I was waiting for the call....Go ! As I stepped onto the jetty he said "no wait" too late, massive wave over the jetty, one Tony totally soaked ha ha. I trudged along to the beach and got some great shots while the others negotiated the incoming waves. Needless to say I had to put up with Geoffs cheesy grin for the next couple of hours.

The hike was amazing right from the off. No sooner had we gone around the corner of the bay to an inlet we were amongst marine iguana and sea lions in large numbers with a brown pelican thrown in along with mating eagle rays in the crest of the waves. After several minutes we headed off through the vegetation and found a nesting albatross, then large numbers nesting, flying and swooping out over the sea. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better we came upon a pair of Galapagos hawks who duly began to mate, stunning. We continued to the other side of the island with the spectacular tall cliffs and were treated to rough deep blue seas pounding into the land mass. Numerous species of birds littered the skies in aerial combat, some battling the wind as they took off and landed, others just cruising on the thermals. More sea lions, Nazca boogie chicks and their parents, Tropic birds with their amazing flowing white tails, albatross, more marine iguanas and a spectacular blow hole. I could have spent hours here just sitting, taking it all in. However our time past and we were back on the dinghy heading for our boat happy as anything with a few hundred photos.


1-6. Turtle, white tipped reef shark lying on a marbled ray, ray and fish.
7-10. Beautiful coloured seas, negotiating a dry landing and a sea lion to welcome us.
11-12. Marine iguana
13-14. Sea lions basking in the sun
15-17. Red Lava lizard
18-21. Mating Galápagos Hawks, an amazing sight.
22-24. Marine Iguana

There are so many photographs from this Island I have added another blog page with additional snaps.

The show goes on,

Adios

Tony x