Española is the southernmost island in the Galápagos archipelago, and one of its oldest. The pristine sandy beach of Gardner Bay is home to dozens of Sea Lions, sleeping in the sun or playing in the surf as we walked amongst them. At Punta Suárez on the eastern corner of the island a huge crowd of Marine Iguanas welcomed us ashore, congregating densely along the jet-black lava on the water’s edge, spitting out brine or eating algae off the rocks. The Galápagos Marine Iguana is the only ocean-going lizard in the world, and the one found on Española is the most brightly coloured subspecies. Off the nearby beach, a large bull Sea Lion patrolled the surf, protecting his harem of perhaps 20 females.
Climbing gently over lava boulders and through a breeding colony of Blue Footed Boobies, we entered a colony of their close cousins – the Nazca Boobies – also closely related to Gannets which can be seen in the British Isles. A Galápagos Hawk sat on a high rock keeping an opportunistic eye on proceedings, and protecting her territory. On the spectacular cliff tops on the south west corner of Española, where on-shore winds from April to December help them launch themselves off the cliffs, is a huge breeding colony of Waved Albatross, the largest bird found in the Galápagos. Endemic only to Española, there are estimated to be 12,000 pairs of these birds. They mate for life after maturity at about six years of age and carry out a remarkable courtship dance which involves circling each other with much clacking together of bills. A sight that left even our naturalists scratching their heads was a Blue Footed Booby proudly sitting on a Waved Albatross egg in the middle of the path – the booby would be in for quite a shock if the chick ever hatched.