Isla Española (aka Hood Island)
Early in the morning The Millennium left San Cristóbal Island and headed to Isla Española (aka Hood Island). The English name comes from Viscount Samuel Hood. Viscount Hood was a British Admiral known for his service in the American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary Wars. Hood was a mentor to Horatio Nelson, of Battle of Trafalgar fame.
Española is a little less exciting, it means someone or something from Spain. But in this case, the Island was named in honour of Spain.
One of the oldest of the islands, Española is small and flat with no visible volcanic crater or vent.
We are to land at Punta Suarez (Point Suarez). The group made a dry landing on a jetty, to be greeted by a lava heron, marine iguanas and sea lions. One young sea lion was harassing a marine iguana, biting it and pushing it. All to avail avail, the iguana did not respond, but walked away.
As the group left the jetty there was a large grouping of marine iguanas sunning themselves, hoping to get enough body heat to head out and feed. Occasionally one would eject salt from the glands in its nose. A very Galapagos like scene.
A lone Galapagos Pelican was sunning itself on the rocks near the sea lion creche. A lava lizard was running around in the sand. The lava lizard seems to be bigger on this island, but perhaps it was just the one we saw.
The Guide with the group in front of us, was not only painfully slow, but a real nosey parker. Taking ever opportunity to whinge and complain to Pato our guide for any trivial reason. The group appreciated Pato even more after that encounter.
Finches and ground doves were feeding along the track as we approached the first colony of Narzca (or masked) boobies, the largest of the 3 species of boobies in the Galapagos. The group made its way through the colony, pairs were courting, nests being built, a few birds were sitting on eggs. A bit of squabbling occurred. A nest was even being built in the middle of the walking track – bad placement.
Waved albatross
After climbing some rocks there were the chicks of the Waved Albatross, a bird with a 2 metre wingspan. Española Island is the only place in the world where Waved Albatrosses breed. The more we looked, the more chicks we saw. The chicks are about the size of a small turkey, fattened on the oil their parents fed them – made mostly from jelly fish hunted in the surrounding waters. It will be another month or so before the chicks fledge and then spend the next 5 years at sea. Then they return to breed.
Some adults were flying and one pair was touching beaks, part of their famous mating ritual. We could hear the beaks “clash” together. Onward we went and the group reached the cliffs, with a blow whole below and adult Waved Albatrosses flying about, with a smattering of blue footed boobies and the occasional white tailed tropic bird. Quite a scene and what a view! A chance to get the Waved Albatrosses in flight. They were flying around the cliffs as opposed to gliding.
The BBC in its Galapagos series filmed the blowhole from down on the rock rock platform in famous sequence from the series, the advantage of almost unlimited access to the Islands, whereas we were restricted to the walking trails.
On the return journey more of the same.
As the jetty became visible the iguanas were now on the move towards the water. Some had already began the swim out past the waves to their feeding grounds. We past a few marine iguanas as the zodiac made its way back to the Millennium. The crew took us closer to a couple.
Next stop an inlet of the Island to snorkel with the sea lions and school fish. The school fish being attracted to the extraordinary phyto and zoo plankton in the water. If we only had the sunlight of the morning the photos would have been great. It made little difference to The Doc as he was only snorkelling, not taking photos. It was great to snorkel and play games with the sea lions again. A bull male made a brief appearance.
Those not snorkelling went off on the “paparazzi boat” once again, so named by the crew.
Gardner Bay
A third stop today is a beach Gardner Bay. A nice beach with a colony of mostly sea lions and a few birds. The Doc cannot find his SLR pictures from this stop. He cannot remember if he used the SLR or not, he does have the point and shoot shots.
It was another full day and the group returned to the boat, captured a great picture of the light on Gardner Islet, showered and was again served a delicious meal. Fabian the waiter was friendly an efficient as usual. Off to bed.
The Doc liked Isla Española.
