{"id":7353,"date":"2013-04-21T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2013-04-21T13:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/?p=7353"},"modified":"2013-04-17T12:57:13","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T19:57:13","slug":"galapagos-day-18-waved-albatross-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/galapagos-day-18-waved-albatross-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Galapagos, Day 18: Waved Albatross Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ecuador Trip: Day 18<\/strong><\/p>\n

Galapagos Cruise: Day 13<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ah, thirteen, my favorite number. No wonder Day 13 of our Galapagos cruise was one of my favorite ever. We spent Day 13 at Espa\u00f1ola Island<\/a>, otherwise known as Hood Island. Espa\u00f1ola\u00a0is a photographer’s paradise. I think it was my favorite island during Week 2. Genovesa Island captured that title for Week 1, and both islands feature tons and tons of birds. But the cool thing about Espa\u00f1ola is that if you visit at the right time of year (April and May are excellent), you’ll see literally hundreds of these marine birds, because they come back to Espa\u00f1ola every year to mate. That’s one of the reasons I chose our Galapagos cruise for\u00a0mid- to late-April. I did not want\u00a0to miss this once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing the Waved Albatross. We encountered the Waved Albatross in the afternoon. In the morning, we visited Gardner Bay, which is home to more sea lions than you can shake a stick at. We basically walked along the beach and took millions of pictures:<\/p>\n

\"Gala_May3_GardnerBay1\"<\/a>
They kind of look like gigantic baking sardines. But these sea lions are just basking in the sun enjoying being the center of attention. There was a lot of groaning and barking and sticking up their heads trying to outshine each other. Sea lions make a lot of noise!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Here's<\/a>
Here’s a little guy rolling around doing an imitation of a beagle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Moi!<\/a>
Moi! Trying to make sure my hat doesn’t fly off. My BIL and SIL and I had walked down the beach to join Harry, our guide. We sat in the sand and just hung out. It was a gorgeous day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following our walk along the beach, we returned to the Cormorant for a light lunch. Then we had one of the most amazing snorkeling adventures that occurred during our entire two weeks. By now we were used to seeing amazing fish and swimming after sea turtles, and also frolicking with sea lions. However, snorkeling at Espa\u00f1ola was a delight, because there was this cool cave where the young sea lions hung out. Harry called them his “kids” and his “pets,” depending on his mood. He was amazing playing with the sea lions and allowing us to interact with them without touching them or getting in their way. It was almost like the little sea lions thought we were just really big fishes, or maybe a weird variety of sea lion. There was a cave that Harry took us to, and the tide would flush you in and out of the cave if you just let go of your fear and allowed the ocean to carry you. My BIL and my DH took good care of me in the cave, because I was a little afraid of bonking my head against the interior rock walls on the in-flush. Then I heard Harry shout, “Don’t be afraid. Let the water carry you.” And once I did that, wow, what fun. I just hung there in the water, letting the tide flow me in and out of the cave with the others, and it was such an incredible joy to find myself and others in our group floating in and out with the sea lions, watching them below the water while they watched us right back. It’s really an experience that is hard to describe. But I could have spent two hours floating back and forth in that cave. Alas, there were other guides with other groups who wanted their turns, the greedy sorts. Eventually, we gave up the cave to the next group, finished our snorkeling for the day, then returned to the Cormorant to make our way to Suarez Point, also on Espa\u00f1ola Island.<\/p>\n

Suarez Point is a nesting ground for the Waved Albatross, but you can also find several varieties of bird life there, including the Nazca Boobies and the Blue-Footed Boobies. For an island abundant with life, it feels incredibly peaceful. We really enjoyed just soaking in the sights and sounds of nature, and, once again, it felt like our guide had introduced us to something really special\u2014which he had! I could return to Espa\u00f1ola Island again and again and not feel bored, I’m\u00a0sure. Let me show you…<\/p>\n

\"All<\/a>
All those little white blobs are varieties of Boobies and other marine birds. The sea washes in and out. It’s noisy and serene at the same time. The young birds learn to fly here. Pity the bird who breaks a wing, because it’s survival of the fittest in the Galapagos. Very Darwinian….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"As<\/a>
As well as the marine birds, we saw dozens of the red “Christmas” iguanas (Iguana wish you a merry Christmas…)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’s a close-up:<\/p>\n

\"Gala_May3_Suarez2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the super cool things about Suarez Point is the famous blow-hole. As the tide swept in, water would shoot out of the hole, like a great rock whale:<\/p>\n

\"Gala_May3_Suarez3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You know I gotta show you some Blue-Footed Boobies! They were plentiful on Suarez Point.<\/p>\n

\"Typically,<\/a>
Typically, he’s trying to get her attention and she’s ignoring him. I’m pretty sure the female Boobies are the originators of “playing hard to get.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now for the Waved Albatrosses! There were literally fields of these nesting guys and gals:<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A lot of them were sitting on eggs. Wouldn’t it be cool if I actually had a picture of one of them showing us an egg?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They would waddle around in the fields, and it was so funny, almost like they were trying to sneak up on each other. When they weren’t waddling, they were flying:<\/p>\n

\"Gala_May3_Suarez6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a “couple” discussing what they’re going to name their children. Their beaks made a clacking sound as the conversation progressed:<\/p>\n

\"Isn't
Isn’t that cute? Now which do you think is the male and which the female? Is the female the one doing all the yacking? Or is she the one sitting there thinking, “That blow hard. There he goes again. I do NOT want to name our baby Hermatroid!”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As it so happens, I do have a photo of a nesting Waved Albatross showing us an egg. My husband took this picture with his Blackberry. He was very patient, waiting until the bird figured, hey, it was just him and this weirdo in a Panama Hat, so why not show him who’s got the goods?<\/p>\n

\"See<\/a>
See the egg? Isn’t that amazing?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By this point in our travels, with only two days remaining in our cruise, I thought there was nothing else Harry could show us new under the sun. We were on our way to Floreana Island, where you can find the famous Post Office Bay. I thought the Barrel Post Office was all Floreana would show us. Boy, was I wrong. In the Galapagos, it’s one surprise and one amazing discovery or experience after another.<\/p>\n

Don’t you want to book a cruise now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ecuador Trip: Day 18 Galapagos Cruise: Day 13 Ah, thirteen, my favorite number. No wonder Day 13 of our Galapagos cruise was one of my favorite ever. We spent Day 13 at Espa\u00f1ola Island, otherwise known as Hood Island. Espa\u00f1ola\u00a0is a photographer’s paradise. I think it was my favorite island during Week 2. Genovesa Island… Continue reading Galapagos, Day 18: Waved Albatross Heaven<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galapagos-2012","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7353"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7463,"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7353\/revisions\/7463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyprocter-king.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}