Southern Exposure

Sunday, January 25

Our morning landing was at Gardner Bay, which was another stunning beach filled with seal lions,

swimming iguanas,

and four different kinds of crabs.

We swam to a rock outcropping 200 ft from the beach to snorkel and saw large schools of fish, eel and sting rays.

After lunch I was trying to take a nap on the upper deck, but kept getting up to watch a pod of dolphins who were chasing our yacht.

Later in the afternoon we had a dry landing at Punta Suárez. When we got out of the dingy boat the land iguanas and sea lions were blocking the path from the pier.

The iguanas were bunched up together sometimes six at a time to keep warm. It was a fascinating sight.

We hiked up along the island trail encountering sea hawks, blue footed boobies, nazca boobies, Galapagos doves, and numerous other birds.

The trail opened up to a gorgeous view of black volcanic cliffs dropping swiftly into the ocean, reminding me of Land’s End in Southern England.

The high cliffs were known as the Albatross Airport. The strong ocean breeze from the Pacific Ocean to the south provided easy liftoffs for the massive birds. It was the wrong season for albatross, but we were lucky enough to see one lonely albatross. He must have come back early and wondered where everyone else was.

On the way back we passed a nursery of baby sea lines splashing joyfully in a little lagoon. There was a natural rock barrier separating them from the open water which protected them from sharks. It was impossible to count how many little pups there were as they splashed and wrestled with each other.

Back on the boat, and after another great dinner we hit the bed at our usual 9 pm. If you’re going to make a trip to the Galapagos, be sure to make it to Española, it was our favorite.