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Morning Walk Along Espinoza Point on Fernandina Islands in the Galapagos Islands

I thought I’d do something different for this series of blog posts (along Espinoza Point).  I thought I’d just take you along on the morning hike with us, showing you the sights we saw as we saw them!

Soft Morning

Our day began with this lovely sunrise.  It just seemed so soft and gentle, a nice way to start the day.

A Smiling Iguana

I know these are really sort of creepy looking creatures, but I just had to smile because I felt like this guy was smiling at us as we started our hike along Espinoza Point.

Iguanas on the Shore

And, the guy above was from a throng of dozens (maybe hundreds) of marine iguanas that lined the shoreline.  It’s amazing – they have no sense of personal space – they just lay all over each other.

Posing

And, they just sort of walk all over each other, too!  Here’s another guy, seemingly smiling at us.  Well, let’s move on…

Walking Along the Shore

I really did love the peaceful feel that I’d get from looking out on the great scenery.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t dwell on it for too long, or I’d lose track of my group and be lost!

Crab Walk

This is probably one of those brightly colored Sally Lightfoot Crabs (just love that name!).  However, I saw it silhouetted on the lava rocks with the water behind it, and had to capture this very cool image.

Driftwood

There’s nothing like a piece of driftwood to make one feel like one’s on a deserted island.  I guess technically this is a deserted island, since no humans live on it.  However, it certainly isn’t deserted of life!

Natural Coves

I loved that this part of our hike was along the shoreline.  Altho the equator sun was getting hotter (nothing so gentle as “warm”), looking at the cool water helped me think perhaps I wasn’t really as hot as I felt!

Mom and Baby Sea Lion

It’s really wonderful how the animals show absolutely no fear of humans here.  Of course, they are and have been totally protected, so it’s not surprising – just wonderful.  Here’s a Mom Sea Lion feeding her little one breakfast.

Hungry Baby

And, here’s a close up of the little tyke!

Flightless Cormorant Nesting

Next, we happened across a flightless cormorant in her nest.  We were probably closer to her than the 15 feet distance that we are supposed to keep, but she chose to make her nest right along the path we were to follow!

Mama Ain’t Happy

She wasn’t really happy with our closeness and certainly let us know! 

Settling Down

But, she quickly realized that we were just passing thru, and settled down to the business of hating some new little cormorants!

More to come in Part 2 of our hike this morning….

Enjoy!