Isla Espanola, Galapagos

September 21, Saturday Galápagos cruise

Destination: The Galápagos Islands

Accommodations: Archipell II

It was another night of rocking and rolling as we made our way to the next island – Isla Espanola. We had a nice breakfast and then we went off in the zodiac to cruise around to see the wildlife. So much wildlife to see everywhere, especially birds.

We then took the zodiac to the beach and we enjoyed walking along the sand and just relaxing.
We saw the bones of a whale, as well as sea lions lounging on the sand, small birds hopping all over, large birds living on the cliffs, and the occasional lizard.

We came back in time for lunch and the chef made a delicious ceviche dish. In addition to that dish for an appetizer, he also served lasagna, vegetables with palm hearts, and coleslaw.

After lunch we went on a nature walk. Pablo said it would be rough climbing over rocks. Rough was an understatement!!! OMG! We climbed over huge rocks, lava, stones, and slippery rocks. We had to time getting out of the zodiac with the waves to get to the stone pier which wasn’t easy.

The walk took about 2.5 hours and we did see some fabulous birds. Albatross, Boobys, and many more. We even saw Albatross doing the mating dance which was unbelievable to watch.

When we walked back, the pier was under water so we had to climb up lava to get to the zodiac. That was not fun. I told Pablo along the way that he should have added 3 exclamation marks to the daily activity chart after the word ‘rough’. But, by the time we were walking back and had to climb the lava, I told him that 5 exclamation marks would be more like it.

We had bbq for dinner on the ship. I wasn’t very hungry, but it really was very good.

Then Pablo started talking about tomorrow’s activities and he said that there’s a new rating, thanks to me, for the difficulty of the walks from now on. Tomorrow’s walk will be 5 exclamation marks in terms of difficulty. Yesterday’s was 4 exclamation marks. Too funny!

Early to bed since we have breakfast at 6:30 tomorrow to get started on the activities.

Cave we entered on our zodiac ride

Sea Anemones bright orange

Sand sea star

Male Magnificent frigate bird inflating his throat pouch which they use to attract females during the mating season.

White booby.

Pelican

Along the beach we stopped at.

Little lava lizard catching ants for his meal.

Whale bones

The chef putting together a ceviche dish for our lunch. White fish, shrimp, octopus, lime juice, cilantro, onions, mustard, salt, broth from the white fish and the shrimp, tomatoes, and different colored peppers.