Zodiac call at 4 pm precisely- we hooked up with Ellen and Michelle again and solidified our “Team Zodiac” strategy by grabbing the last zodiac to Espanola. Private tour! Only the 6 of us and Giovanna, our Naturalist for the afternoon. As we approached the island, we were greeted by a colony of sea lion, slots playing in the water all around the zodiac. As we waited for the boat in front of us to unload, we trolled along the jetty landing area looking at Sally Lightfoot crabs and watching the sea lions play with he zodiac.
After a few minutes wait, we all hopped off the zodiac on the jetty like rock formation and began walking down the path, careful to step around the bright red crabs and marine iguanas in our path.
Today’s activity is a 2-hour walk around the island to a blow hole on the other side. It’s a rough hike because most of it will be over rocks and boulders. The bonus with our small group is we’re all pretty athletic and can handle the terrain fairly easily.
We begin our exploration on a sandy beach right off the jetty filled with a colony of sea lions. They are adorable, but a little frightening when they start coming toward you – especially when there are so many of them on the beach with their babies. BTW, I’m staying hidden away – so far – so good – my “out of sight, out of mind” strategy seems to be working quite well so far – let Ed and Cathy deal with these monstrous beasts!
So – here is the wildlife overload! Our walk through Espanola was just too incredible to really describe in words. We saw the sea lions (probably 200 on each of 2 beaches), marine iguanas, Sally Lightfoot crabs (SLC), BFBs, Nasca Boobies (which Cathy thought they were calling NASCAR boobies…..did she really get her hearing checked?), finches and mocking birds. The amazing thing is that none of them were afraid of us as predators, you could get as close as you wanted to most – although we weren’t supposed to get closer than 5 or 6 feet. But that proved nearly impossible as the animals were all over the path and there were instances when you had to step over the iguanas trying to cool off in the shade – or walk around boobies nesting. You never knew where to look – over here is a BFB mommy with 2 chicks under her wings to keep cool, over there, a male marine iguana perched on a rock, up ahead under the brush, more iguanas resting; BFBs everywhere, chicks (that look like goslings), full grown with the startling blue feet. Then there was the abandoned egg at the top of the hike – near the albatross “landing strip. So sad, but the necessary evils of survival of the fittest.
After walking along the rocky shore filled with SLCs, and climbing along on boulders and rocks through the scrubby vegetation in search of finches and warblers (which we found along with a pair of mating lizards), we arrived at the bluffs on the other side of the island overlooking the water. A Short rest sitting on really HOT rocks, but enjoying a good breeze, and we were off again for the completion of our hike. (Along the way, unbeknownst to us, Richard really had to go! In his initial talk, Jorge had jokingly showed us a picture of the bushes and told us this was Galapagos bathroom. Richard took that to heart and wanted to use the bushes. Maggi steadfastly refused to let him “introduce anything foreign” into the island. So, after a few more painful minutes, Maggi ended up chugging down her water bottle and giving it to Richard to use. He then transported it back to the ship in his back pocket!)
The 2nd half of the walk was a spectacular as the first with various creatures basking in the sun or lounging under bushes to avoid the heat. We passed by a magnificent blow hole, saw many iguanas, and, as we were passing by a couple of sea lions, we spied a plastic bottle laying empty on the beach. Geovanna retrieved it using our walking stick as protection (the bulls can be very aggressive).
By the time we made it back to the sea lion beach to get our zodiac, the tide had come in – as well as the sea lions! They had moved inland and were blocking our path. We had to pick our way off the trail through rocks to get back to the jetty. The sea lions are playful creatures, but you don’t want to mess with them r their babies. Speaking of babies, at the 2nd beach, a teeny baby, maybe 2 weeks old, was crying for it’s mother. We stood mesmerized as it went from female to female trying to feed and then begin chased off. We left without knowing whether it found it s mother or not – but Geovanna said it was normal and that the mother was probably out fishing or just ignoring the pup.
The tide being in meant we now had a semi-wet landing! We had to time our “run” to the zodiac with the waves. As we waited, we could see sea lions surfing in the waves – it was so surreal! You have to pinch yourself to convince yourself it’s real and not computer animation!
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