Jen and Rebecca Swim with the Fishes (1/1/10)

R: Happy New Year! For once drinking too much was not the reason I didn’t sleep well on a New Year’s night. Instead it was because the ship rocked and rolled all night long and the sleeping pill did NOT knock me out! Oh well. I must have gotten at least catnaps in between boat movements. We arrived at our next port at Espanola Island (also known as Hood Island) around 5:30, well before breakfast at 7:00. We had our first wet-landing in Gardner Bay, but it was on a smooth sandy beach, so we didn’t even need to wear sandals. We had a few hours to lie down with the many sea lions and wander the beach, and swim. We saw a hawk perched on the rocks, many un-shy mockingbirds, the bazillions of napping sea lions, as well as a number of tourists on the beach.


J: The sea lions were quite used to tourists and actually posed for several of our photos. After about an hour of floating in the water and taking endless shots of the sea creatures, we headed back to the ship to prepare for our first snorkeling adventure. We brought our own snorkels and masks (which Rebecca bought the week before the trip), but thought it wise to rent wet suits so that we could stay warmer in the water. We put on our snorkel gear and rode the pangas out to a rocky little island and jumped overboard. I saw an endless number of brightly colored fish, a diamond ray, and some coral (sadly, no sharks yet). Unfortunately, my underwater photography skills leave a lot to be desired, so I didn’t get very many good pictures to actually prove I was there.


R: But it was fun trying. I somehow managed to get my finger in several of my photos. Need to work on that for next time, I guess. I also saw a sea lion swimming right next to me which was pretty cool. After our lunch break (and my siesta) back on the boat, we returned to shore after moving to Punta Suarez on the other side of the island. This hike was another bird and iguana paradise. We saw only one blue-footed booby upon landing that actually had the blue feet. The others we saw were all juveniles whose feet had yet to turn blue. But to make up for that, we saw a whole lot of Nasca boobies, one sitting on its egg, then another hovering over its tiny chick, and yet another sitting on TWO eggs. Plus we saw a marine iguana in full mating-ready color showing off for some lady marine iguanas, plus a bunch of baby iguanas.

Nasca booby

Preening male iguana with the ladies in the background

J: Rebecca neglected to mention my awesome bird photography. I got a beautiful picture of a frigate bird as it was passing overhead. Some may call it luck, but I prefer to say that I’m immensely talented. Juan had warned us earlier that we may not see any albatrosses today, but we actually saw quite a few, including a couple of juveniles. My favorite part of the day was when we sat on a cliff near the ocean and watched water shoot up thru a blow-hole. I’m guessing there were some animals playing nearby too….

Jen's frigate bird photo

R: Yeah, we saw a Galapagos hawk swooping through and perching on a rock here. Plus we could admire three young albatrosses here. December is apparently the end of their season on Espanola Island, so seeing 9 was really pretty lucky. Back aboard the boat, we had dinner (complete with wine brought from the mainland by some of our shipmates) before the boat took off for another overnight sea voyage adventure. Early to bed again, mostly because it’s impossible to do much of anything else while the boat is moving over rough waters without at least half of us feeling ill…