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| I told you, we can't stop taking pictures of sea lions. |
Espanola Island. Some history. When this island was ‘assessed’ after the whalers and buccaneers left and were banned from the island, it was full of cats, dogs and goats with only 14 giant tortoises remaining. They were removed to be bred on another island so they wouldn’t go extinct. From those 12 females and 2 males there is now a population of 2,000. Not on this island, not sure which island or islands are their home.
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| Galapagos Hawk on light house. |
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| A very hungry baby. |
The next step was to ‘sterilize’ the island. Hunting season. No cats, dogs or goats have lived here for over a century. Only blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, albatross, sea lions, Galapagos doves and Darwin finches. Mostly marine iguanas and sea lions. They are everywhere. The sea lions either are playing in the surf, or the female iguanas are digging their nests for the next generation of eggs. As we walked the trail around the island one has to be careful not to step on marine iguanas or sit on sea lions, they both look like either small rocks or big rocks.
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| Mating sting rays |
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| Roberto took Gloria's camera down 30 feet and got this picture of a lobster. |
The afternoon took us to Gardner Bay on the other side of Espanola Island. This is where the ‘airport’ is for the migrating albatrosses. 12,000 pairs. Only this isn’t albatross season. Roberto showed us an egg. Plenty of iguanas, sea lions and birds though, still a great hike. Finally, we ended our afternoon with a ‘wet landing’ on another pristine ½ mile long beach. All to ourselves…..Except 5 more dinghies followed us in, so a bit crowded, but a great time none-the-less.
Surfin' sea lions? Pictures didn't capture them surfing the break, but they really were!
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| Sea lion 4-pack. |
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