Today we explored Espaňola, the southernmost of the islands
(also far to the east, although not as much as San Cristobal). We first
disembarked in Punta Suarez, on the west side of the island, for another bird
watching expedition. Of course there were a bunch of sea lions sunning on the
rocky beach, but what amazed us most were hundreds of marine iguanas, laying
pell-mell above each other, apparently waiting for the sun to warm them up so
they could dive into the cool ocean. According to Roberto they feed from sea
algae at depths of a few tens of meters. The females are small and almost
black; the males, in contrast, are big and, in Espaňola in particular, are
brightly colored carmine red on the sides, and beautiful turquoise green on top
and bottom (they are, however, even uglier than their counterparts in the other
islands).
Bird watching was fairly successful, with sightings of
albatrosses (an adult in flight, and a couple of teenagers clearly planning to
leave the nest at any moment now), Galapagos hawks, and finches of three
different sub-species feeding in the same tree (or so claimed Catherine, who is
the only one sophisticated enough to see the minor differences between the
subspecies).
Once we were back on the boat we moved from the west to the
east side of the island, to Gardner Bay. There we made a brave attempt to
snorkel, but the swell was up and the water was too turbid to see anything more
than a few fish.
No comments:
Post a Comment