Espanola

Not a good night’s sleep – bit hot as the air conditioning is not working properly, and the fan just circulated hot air (temperature never drops below 21 degrees), also the sheets on the bed are not quite wide enough, and so they become untucked and rucked up. So quite tired when we got up. Others were still feeling the effects of seasickness too as the crossing was very rough (I enjoyed that part!), so all in all it was a quiet breakfast. Breakfast was the usual meats, cheese, toast, granola but today with French toast. The Americans and Canadians all had thirds.
At 8:30am we took the panga to the beach for our first wet landing. This was the most fantastic morning spent on the beach with dozens of friendly sea lions. They just lie and doze on the beach, being photogenic.

The weather went from hot and sunny, to cool and drizzly and back all in the space of 90 minutes. SS and I sat in the middle of a large group of sea lions and they just rolled closer to us as the babies grumbled,

and the large male sea lion toured up and down the beach barking his superiority.

I took lots of video as the noise was constant and quite loud (which certainly doesn’t show in the photos!). There is no smell from these sea lions unlike those in other places I have been, but they are constantly attacked by flies (some endemic, some introduced). They roll in sand or go in the water to try to repel them.

This was the most wonderful 90 minutes of relaxation and amazement spending time with these creatures. And of course the odd marine iguana likes to parade up and down as well...

So, back to the boat and time for the first snorkelling of the trip. I had brought rash vests for me and SS to snorkel, but I quickly went with the pack and hired a wetsuit for the week ($25 – daylight robbery!). The water was fairly chilly but bearable with a wetsuit. I saw lots of fish,

and also a sea lion came to play with me for a couple of minutes – they swim so fast it is hard to get a picture of them properly!

On return to the boat we were greeted with juice and small cheesy fritters – very nice. SS stayed on the boat reading “The End of the Third Reich” by Toby Thacker – he got through a whole book on the cruise which is a first for him, and he has been trying to read it all year.
Back to the boat, showered and lunch time. Lunch was a soup to start, followed by salad, potato bake and chicken followed by fruit.
The boat then moved around the top of Espanola island to Punta Suarez where we were going on a late afternoon walk, so we had a couple of hours off. We read, backed up photos, drank tea and snoozed.

At 4pm, back on the panga and out to Punta Suarez. This was a really rocky walk – more like clambering over small boulders really.

At the entrance ramp, the usual marine iguana was in place to welcome us,

and a sea lion almost blocking the path and refusing to move.

We saw a lot of interesting things. Firstly albatross chicks - which are left for days at a time whilst their parents are out hunting. they are very brown coloured, so are well concealed, even tho' they do not really have any predators.

The parents feed them oil which they produce from glands from the fish they eat – apparently this is very rich in nutrients and also very smelly. we saw a couple of albatrosses flying, but unfortunately none came into the large "landing strips" whilst we were there, to demonstrate their crash landing skills...

We also saw Nazca boobies,

and the "famous" blowhole. Other waves were also crashing against the shore, creating lovely rainbows.

The sea lions were giving birth just offshore and bringing the newborns to the beach. They had no interest in us standing on the beach, just barged their way through with their grumbling baby, and rolled in the sand. So cute. There was no zoom used for these photos...

The marine iguanas were starting to pile up on each other in preparation for night time, and spending time snorting out all the sea water they ingested hunting that day. I loved the iguanas – they are so completely prehistoric looking, and so completely uninterested and unconcerned about people. I must have nearly stood on about 30 of them during the week.

There were some very proud blue footed boobies with their chicks.

The sun started setting at the end of the trip, and the younger male sea lions were settling in on top of the cliffs (they go up there to escape the dominant male in the water). Apparently the dominant male only stays in position for a few weeks, as the constant need to protect his position wears him out. Meanwhile the other bachelors regain their strength up on the cliffs, and then challenge again once he is weakened. The previous dominant male then joins the bachelors and so on, like a revolving door…

One of the sea lions again blocked the path to wave a goodbye flipper to SS…

Back to the boat again, and we had a beer and a chat upstairs to people before dinner. Dinner was carrot and tomato soup with popcorn in it (popcorn is BIG in Ecuador), followed by rice, chicken and ratatouille, then a cheesecake thing which we skipped. More chilli sauce consumed by the table, to much worried looks from SS. In fact, by the end of the trip we had to send one of the crew over to the Mary Anne to get some of their chilli sauce supply as we had run out!
Another early start the next morning (6am) so off to bed early.