Nathan's Insights

Sunday 15 December 2024
Highlights: Sea Lions, Snorkelling, Hiking rocky terrain.

Today was our first full day in our new home for the week, the Reina Silvia Voyager. I woke up a little earlier than planned. There was some rocking of the catamaran during the night as we moved from Santa Cruz Island to Española Island but I slept okay despite the movements.

At breakfast, our group was excited for the day to begin. We started with a ‘wet’ landing (getting off the zodiac into the water) for a beach visit. This allowed us to get up close and personal with Sea Lions and enjoy the morning air. A nice 1.5 hours of exploring.

Back on our catamaran, we attended a mandatory snorkelling safety briefing. Afterwards, we were off for our first snorkelling adventure off Española Island. For Erin, this was her first time snorkelling. I got a chance to try up my waterproof iPhone cover. I think I’ll get better with practice.

We got to see a sea turtle among a lot of different fish. The water runs hot and cold with different streams as this is a change in water temperature seasons. It was hard to believe when our hour was up.

We then had lunch on the catamaran before an afternoon rest before our 2.30 pm hike on a rocky section of Española Island. This hike was rated as hard with an option for a shorter and easier hike if you wanted. Seven of us chose the 2.5-hour hard hike, which we walked slowly and carefully over 3 kms.

We saw a lot of amazing wildlife on this hike and the landscape was just as good.

I was very tired on returning to our catamaran. I’m hopeful my left knee will be okay tonight.

Just before dinner we officially meet the full crew as they introduced themselves and we did the same. It was good to understand the many jobs.