During our first full day in the Galapagos National Geographic Endeavour II explored Española, the most southeastern island of the archipelago.

We started our day in the northeast of the island at Gardner Bay exploring the underwater world while snorkeling at nearby Gardner Islet. Later on we joined other guests at beautiful Gardner Bay beach where well over a hundred endemic Galapagos sea lions basked innocently and not worried at all by our presence.

During lunch we sailed along the leeward north coast of the island. After a well-deserved siesta we landed once more at Punta Suarez where we were greeted by playful sea lions pups frolicking in the shallows as marine iguanas tried to make the most of the easy grazing during the afternoon low tide. As we made our way around the inland trail soon we came across the largest birds in the Galapagos, the waved albatross which only breeds on Española. The walk along the difficult terrain was well worth it as some guests even got to witness courtship which is somewhat rare at this stage where most albatross are already incubating eggs.

All in all, just an amazing day in one of most special corners of this archipelago.