Day 11: Espanola Island
We started the 6th day going on a morning walk on Espanola. My mother unfortunately decided to stay on the ship since she had gotten quite sea sick the night before. Others had too. We offered my mother a spare seasickness patch but she thought it would have side effects. It worked great for me and I never got seasick whereas I usually do. Our small 16 person ship was filled with nice and interesting people. Some of them also wouldn't go out on every hike, so my mother always had company on the boat. We visited during the mating time for Blue-footed Boobies and Nasca Boobies (aka Masked) had already had their chicks. The Nasca Bobbies are mostly found on the rocky cliffs and the Blue-footed Boobies were in the center of the island. Here are the rocky cliffs where the Nasca Boobies can be found in great numbers.
Here is a Nasca Booby with her chick. As is common with birds, the baby is soon as big as the adult.
We also saw a blow hole that really shot water up high when the tide came in.
We were thrilled that we had shown up at the right time of year to see the Blue-footed Boobie's comical mating dance. Here are couple males trying to find a female to start dancing.
And here they go!
Marine Iguanas were at their most colorful on Espanola since they were plenty of nutrients in the water here.
In the afternoon we went to a pristine white sand beach at Gardener's bay. Now we had seen black, red, green and white sand beaches.
There were a majestic Bull Sealion patrolling this beach who we definitely stayed clear of.
That evening we ran into a large group of dolphins. Probably over 100 dolphins! Some took the opportunity to ride the waves at the bow of our ship.
