We had another rocky night on the ship and this morning isn’t much better. We awake at the small island of Espanola. Our ship is tucked in a quiet, calm bay. Due to the rough seas our morning plans are changed. We are not able to land on the beach so we revert to Plan B, a panga ride alongside the rock face to view the abundant bird life. There are pelicans, blue footed boobies and soaring frigate birds. The pelican’s seem to like being around us, they’ve claimed their resting place near or on the ship and the panga boat. Back on the ship we enjoyed a light snack of fresh fruit and juices then changed for snorkelling.

The water is warm and inviting and the fish life abundant and colourful.  A few minutes into our snorkel some of the ladies spotted a white tip shark.  No need to stress, they are harmless. There are many variety of starfish, including the Mexican chocolate chip star fish. You can see how it got it’s name by the by the pattern and colour. Everyone enjoys being in the water and our snorkel expedition lasts for well over an hour.

This afternoon the captain moves the ship to Punta Suarez on the island of Espanola.  During the move we watched a movie about the people that settled on the island of Floreana in the early 1900’s. It’s interesting to learn about the struggles the people went through, the scandalous affairs of “Baroness” Eloise Wehrborn de Wagner-Bosquet and the unsolved murders. We enjoyed another delicious lunch prepared by chef Segundo.  This afternoon we had a dry lanking and hiked on the island of Espanola. There are many young sea lions, some laying with their mothers and nursing, others looking for their mothers.  Their haunting cries are disturbing. Some babies are separated for days and possibly weeks while their mothers go out to sea to hunt for food.

There are many colourful lizards, beautiful birds and Iguanas lounging at the beach and on the rocks. Sue gets up close and personal with one of  the large iguanas.

We continue our hike past a couple of white sandy beaches and onto a rocky path that lead to a scenic look out and a blow hole.  Along the way we passed a colony of Nasca Boobies.  There’s hundreds of  cute white fluffy babies.  At the top we paused for a while to take in the spectacular ocean view. The blow hole sprays high into the air and below us the sea lions bask in the sun on the rocky shore line.  We watch a few sea lions crawl up the rocky cliff. It’s amazing how they can manoeuvre themselves over the rocks and up the steep incline. One young lion was on the same path as us and wasn’t too pleased with us being in his way. He bellows at us for a while and then tour guide Juan intervenes so we could pass the young pup.

We headed back down the rocky path, past the lounging sea lions, iguanas and sally light foot crabs to the panga dock.  We arrived back to the ship in time for a quick swim. After changing for dinner we headed up to the top deck to watch the sunset and enjoy a glass of wine.  After dinner Juan shows us his photos and videos from our day and reviews the agenda for tomorrow.  The ship cruised through the night, bringing us to the island of Santa Cruz in the morning.