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Nearly all the animals and birds we saw on Española and the other islands ignored our presence.

Blue-footed boobies engaged in a courtship dance	Blue-footed booby and its chick
Albatross soaring along the edge of the cliff	Albatrosses performing a courtship dance

Click here to see a short video Gail made of the albatrosses’ performance. Use your back arrow when the movie is done.

Here is a Galápagos hawk about to fly.

	Waves forced a spray of water out of a hole below the cliff where the albatrosses and boobies nested
Some of the Fragata’s passengers watching birds nesting and soaring

On our way back to the Fragata, we saw a sea lion jumping out of the water, apparently just for the fun of it.

We also saw marine iguanas swimming out to sea.

After lunch on July 4, we snorkled off the beach at Gardner Bay. I got cold and went back to shore early. Others of us saw small white-tipped sharks, rays, and even a swimming sea turtle.

Wednesday night we cruised from Española to Floreana. At night the sky was clear and dark. We could see many stars. The Milky Way was prominent. Jupiter shown brightly overhead in Scorpio. To the south we could see the Southern Cross and Alpha Centauri, the nearest bright star to our Sun. Terrific! I didn't get any pictures, but you can see the kite-shaped Southern Cross in the middle of this photo and Alpha Centauri on the left side.

Storm petrels almost dancing upon the sea

Flamingos in a lagoon at Punta Cormorãn on Floreana.

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Responsible: Albert Holm
Updated: 21 Jan 2019