My camera captured the slow-moving giant tortoise, Sally Light Foot Crab rapidly ran across the sands while their blue and red coloring turned into a blur, adorable blue footed boobies practicing square-dance, and the pre-historical looking Marine Iguanas sunning themselves on the rocky shore. They paid little attention to us Homo sapiens, as we noisily picked our way among their motionless bodies.
We’ve stepped on beaches with all colors. By Gardner Bay of Espanola Island, there was white “sand” beach that was formed by coral digested by a special shrimp, the fine grain under my bare feet felt like silk. Punta Cormorant has slightly coarse brown/green coral-sand beach. Red sand beach was found on the little red island Rabida, the reddish color was due to oxidized iron from the volcano eruption. Then there was the brooding black sand beach on Santiago Island.
The most amazing experience for me was in the ocean surrounding these islands. The ocean was crowded with all kinds of tropical fish, it was literarily a fish soup. I swam with penguins, sea lions, marine turtles, and yes, sharks!
Sea lions were the most playful. They must be related to dogs in some manner. They loved to play like puppies, and they loved to surprise you. A couple of times as I was swimming with an army of fish against the current, trying to cross a slim crack between rocks and to enter the inner calm water; out of the blue (literarily, “the blue water”), a sea lion would dash in such high speed toward me head-on; before I was able to react and while I was cringing expecting a disastrous collision, it would pass me with such precision that I could feel hairs standing on my arms but they wouldn’t be touching the athletic and elegant swimmer next to me. When I got used to them passing me this way, I treated them the same way as those crazy drivers on the highway. I simply stayed on my course, trusting the “expert” to always be gliding in and out of “near-miss” situations safely and beautifully. Once a sea lion sneaked up on me from the back, it hung upside down right in front of my eyes, its large and talkative eyes stared right into mine, up-side-down. Then it blew a huge bubble, which remained in between us for a split second. In that moment, I felt as if it was trying to tell me a story of the sea, in a language that I had long forgotten…
My favorite island was Hood Island, or Espanola Island. This island has the finest white sand beaches, transparent jewel-like turquoise bay, colorful iguanas reminded me of a world where dinosaurs had roamed, the masked booby, swallow tailed gulls, rugged cliffs where strong winds blew all the way from the Antarctic, and the majestic Wave Albatrosses taking off amidst this grand seascape…
The albatross is the king of the sea.
"One of the most perfect natural examples of easy and long sustained flight is the wandering albatross--a bird for endurance of flight probably unrivalled. Found over all parts of the Southern Ocean, it seldom rests on the water. During storms, even the most terrific, it is seen now dashing through the whirling clouds, and now serenely floating, without the least observable motion of its outstretched pinions. The wings of this bird extend 14 or 15 ft. from end to end, and measure only 8 1/2 in. across the broadest part. This conformation gives the bird such an extraordinary sustaining power, that it is said to sleep on the wing during stormy weather, when rest on the ocean is impossible. Rising high in the air, it skims slowly down, with absolutely motionless wings, till a near approach to the waves awakens it, when it rises again for another rest." (excerpt from “THE FLIGHT OF THE ALBATROSS.” PAPER READ BEFORE THE BALLOON SOCIETY, OCTOBER 3,1884 By THOMAS MOY)
Of the entire world, Hood Island is the only breeding site for Wave Albatrosses. In order to take off, their massive wing-span needs a strong headwind. Hood Island is the southern most island of the entire Archipelago; the island’s southern most cliffs became Albatrosses' ideal runway. Once air born, they can glide for hours without flipping their wings. They are called “wave” because they could fly as low as a few millimeters above the wave. In the back of a wave the air stops moving, the friction is at its minimum. Here Albatrosses can maximize their speed to as high as 112km/hour. With such high speed, they could once again soar into the sky, continue to glide.
Young albatrosses spend their first three years on the open ocean. After three years of wandering bachelor life, they return to Hood Island, seeking a mate. They take their time to “date”, finding the right partner. They mate for life. Every year they meet on Hood Island, spend four months together on the island. They lay one egg a year. Dad and Mom take turns hatching. Each will hatch 2-3 weeks without any food while the other goes out to eat. By the time their mate comes back, the one that has been hatching usually has lost up to half of its body weight. After four months, when the baby albatross learns to fly, Dad and Mom will say good bye. Spend the rest of the year wandering alone over the ocean. My fellow passenger joked that us humans sure have lots to learn from albatross. Their divorce rate is near zero! :)
I remember the time when I took this picture, sitting on the rock by the wuthering shore, watching the albatrosses take off, gliding gracefully in front of me. Waves were crashing high onto the ancient rocky cliffs, dark rain clouds were fast approaching, sunlight was still brilliant, and the horizon was blurry between the sky and the ocean. It was absolutely serene, and absolutely wild…
