Again, we traveled all night. Last night, I didn´t take my Dramamine early enough and we were really rocking so I headed to bed and prayed for sleep so I wouldn´t get sick. I was fine in the morning and we head arrived to Espanola. The wildlife was supposed to be incredible here so we decided to try my camera after drying for over 30 hours. No luck, I was bummed but my group said they would send me their pictures so I´ll have some, someday. We had free time on the beach and walked for about an hour. There were crabs on the rocks, sea lions all over the beach and even a few marine iguanas. We went snorkeling and I saw a mother sting ray with 6 or 7 children swarming all over her. It was so amazing to watch. Again, the sea lions got quite close to me in the water. It´s a bit unnerving. You feel like they are coming straight at you and then they veer off. I also saw the usual starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, puffer fish, etc.
We moved to a new spot for lunch and then went snorkeling again. I finally saw a reef shark. Others had been seeing them in my group but it was my first one, for this trip anyways. I also followed around a sea turtle for awhile.
That afternoon, we had a dry landing and were going for a 3 hour walk. This is the best way to describe the abundance of wildlife on the Galapagos. I was the first one out of the dingy, we were landing on lava rocks so I had to find a trail to the nearby beach. But there was no place to go! One way was full of Blue Footed Boobies and their chicks in nests and the other way was full of sea lions and marine iguanas in my path! You literally had to watch every step! As our guide was talking, a baby sea lion was looking for her mother. She must have went up to at least 10 adults and they all pushed her away. She then came straight towards me and began this crying sound. It broke my heart. We all wanted to take her back on the boat with us. She then went to the other side of the island and I kept wondering about her for the rest of our hike. She was skinny and the guide thought that her mother may have been killed by a shark. This is what the Galapagos is all about....letting nature take it´s course and I didn´t like that part. He said, it was very rare for a another sea lion to adopt an orphan. Also, if someone had touched it, the mother would then reject it. So cruel...but we were all hoping for the best!
We walked to the other side of the island where the Waved Albatross nests. They are at sea until April so there wasn´t much to see except a large blow hole that shot water 60´ into the air.
