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I spent several hours flat out on the cabin floor overnight. Once I stopped vomiting (despite two Gravol tablets), I was afraid to climb up to my bunk for fear of being tossed out of it in my sleep due to the rolling of the ship. Things quieted down enough by midnight so that I ventured up the ladder to my bunk. Al endured all of the retching sounds coming from the bathroom without losing his dinner as well. A real feat! He has a stomach for the sea and can read a book when it is rough without feeling nauseous (I can’t do that on a bus!). I expected some seasickness so I was not surprised. It is all part of the experience I guess. It was still better than a day at the office!

The loud grating of the anchor chain got me out of bed at dawn to find us in the relatively placid waters of Gardner bay on the northeast of 25 km² Española Island. It is another low, arid island less than 250 m above sea level at its highest point with ‘forests’ of the giant tree prickly pear cactus. It is the oldest of the islands that we were to visit (3.5 million years-- the ages that I quote have been determined by potassium-argon or argon-argon radiometric dating). The giant saddleback tortoises almost became extinct here due to human predation and habitat destruction caused by goats and other introduced species. These have been eliminated by park wardens and a captive breeding program has now added 1000 tortoises to the island—a wildlife rescue success story. Galápagos is an old Spanish word for saddle inspired by the shape of the front of the saddleback’s shell. The ancestors of these gentle creatures survived the cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs but their descendants are no match for Homo sapiens, the most rapacious of species.

Following breakfast, we took the Zodiac to shore to walk among the sea lions and marine iguanas. All were so tame that it was hazardous to photograph them as you could easily back up and inadvertently step on one while photographing another. I did some birding from the beach looking into the adjacent bush (a no go zone for protection of the plants and animals). I saw my first Darwin finch—a large cactus finch with a beak like a parrot easily a third the size of its entire head. Its ancestors in South America had small beaks for eating small seeds. Here, on Española, where large hard seeds are in abundance, birds with larger beaks were favoured. The smaller beaked individuals died out leaving the big beaks to survive and give rise to this species. Hood mockingbirds were also present. Several mockingbird species have also arisen on the islands from chance colonization by ancestors that reached the islands. The rise of many species from one is a process that evolutionary biologists call adaptive radiation.

We returned to Guantanamera and got our snorkelling gear on. We took the Zodiac to nearby Gardner Island (more of a rock) and plunged in for a tour along the basalt cliff: there were dazzling reef fish along with sea lions who swam along with us. Washington dove to a grotto in the lava flows and pulled out an octopus which he brought up to the surface. Every one had a chance to pet it and to have it wrap its tentacles and suction cups around their arms. The poor creature squirted large amounts of ink to cover its escape but to no avail until Washington decided to let it go. It shot back down to its grotto.

Large ground finch near Puta Suárez, Española Island Photo by Lionel Jackson

Nasca booby chick with remains of its sibling near Puta Suárez, Española Island Photo by Lionel Jackson

Lunch was followed by a siesta during the hottest hours. People on-board usually dozed, read, or chatted during siestas. I usually used the time to make some notes and read some of my natural history books on Galápagos Islands. After siesta we left Gardner Bay for Punta Suárez on the south side of the island. We had to circle around the breakers in order to land on a small breakwater. This was one of the times that life jackets were mandatory on the Zodiac as capsizing in the breakers was possible. The rocky beach was alive with sea lions and marine iguanas. We hiked for about an hour through colonies of blue footed boobys, Nasca boobys, swallow tail gulls. Booby chicks were everywhere. They lay two eggs. The second is an insurance policy against the first chick not surviving. The first hatched chick kills his sibling. Should he fail to thrive, his later hatching sibling gives the parents a second chance to pass on their genes to posterity. Although appalling to human sensibilities, the abundance of these amazing birds vindicates the blind watchmaker of natural selection. In nature, the end does justify the means.

As humans, our defining characteristic may well be that we have a choice in the matter.

I saw Galápagos doves (another endemic species) and photographed a large ground finch, one species of the so-called Darwin's finches. We also saw the nesting grounds of the waved Albatross. They will likely return in a few weeks. Those birds fly without touching down for months and can sleep while flying. We also saw one of the best blow holes imaginable. We returned to the boat for the mandatory bottle of beer, orientation and dinner and the usual swapping of experiences of the day. Our Dutch and Swedish passengers will leave us tomorrow. Our bartender made a round of special cocktails and the cook baked a cake with our departing shipmates’ names on it. Tomorrow we will have the snorkelling highlight of the trip as we will swim with the white tip reef sharks in the Devil’s Crown (La Corona del Diablo) near Floreana Island!