We began the morning with coffee, croissants and eggs delivered to the room shortly after waking. It was delightful to sit out on the balcony and enjoy watching the ship ease in to today’s stop. We anchor out as we will every day.

We meandered down two decks to where we were to gather for the morning’s adventure. Turned out we were to be in the first tender departing and we were only 4 guests with our naturalist, Inrry. We were given our life jackets, signed out from the ship, boarded the tender and we were speeding off to the white sand stretch of beach on Espanola’s east side.

It was our first “wet” landing, climbing off the tender into what was actually a very pleasant ocean temperature. We were greeted by a large number of sea lions lounging on the beach, rolling in the sand and cavorting in the shallows. Everything from the huge males to moms and nursing babies.

Along the beach walk Inrry described the various animals that were endemic to the island, including a small type of mockingbird. They were not very cooperative as we tried to photograph them. We also saw some bones from a skeleton of a long dead humpback whale and those of a sea lion.

Next was our first kayaking experience here. What a delight! In came the tender to the shore pulling the kayaks. We boarded and then were taken around to the north end of the island. While we remained off shore they pulled one kayak at a time around to one side and had a couple climb on, handing us our paddles. Since we were only two pairs and our guide this went rather quickly and surprisingly well for our first attempt.

Patty remembered to bring a waterproof case with a neck strap for her phone, which I didn’t, so we decided that while kayaking she’d be the photographer and I’d keep paddling. It worked well! We paddled along some amazing cliffs where we couldn’t believe that we saw our first blue footed boobies!! We also spotted frigates, which are rather sizable and blended into the cliffs. At one spot we looked down and saw a school of small, flat yellow fish. The top to the adventure was spotting a hawkbill turtle poking its head up near us.

And then it was time to return to the ship. We climbed aboard, rinsed the sand off our water shoes, rinsed our feet, checked back in, then were greeted with fresh fruit juices and small snack sandwiches. Altogether we couldn’t have asked for a better start to our adventures.

We had lunch in the dining room as it was a tad humid to sit outdoors and it allowed us to try something different. One of the staff mentioned that on Mondays they have a serviche bar, which sounded great. The shrimp here in Ecuador is wonderful. And so was the seviche that I got to customize. Yum!

We went off to a talk on how to identify the various birds that are endemic to the Galapagos. It was so informative as we begin these twice daily adventures.

And what an adventure we had this afternoon! In a downpour! We were once again on the first tender out, which began with a rainy start which turned into a drenching. But I just considered it my shower before my shower – totally worth getting soaked to the skin with all we saw. This was an hour’s long tender ride to another area of the island, as the ship had sailed while we had lunch.

We saw more sea lions, but these were all playing in the shallows along a crazy ridge area with breaking waves. Apparently the moms use that place to teach their young how to handle it.

There was another spot along the cliffs where there was an amazing blow hole, with the water shooting many feet in the air. I have to give credit to not only the wonderful naturalists we have with us but the crew members who so skillfully pilot the tenders so close in to shore and rocky areas so we can get the best views of all the wildlife.

But even more fun was seeing more Blue Footed Boobies, iguanas, including the Christmas Iguanas, Oyster Catchers, Nasco Boobies, Sally Lightfoot Crabs, a pelican and manta rays. Whew!

I had a good laugh when one of our fellow passengers said “Imagine what Darwin must have thought when he first arrived here and saw all these unusual animals….he probably thought the rum ration was bad!” Ha!

And now, after a lovely, warm shower and getting into dry clothes I’m feeling human. Enough so that we’ve wandered down to the Discovery lounge so we can inbibe today’s special drink, the Blue footed booby.

Dinner was again wonderful with our new friends, Joan and Alison, a mother/ daughter pair who are beyond delightful. Here’s us toasting to new friends!