Maybe it is the English major in me, haunted for life by Coleridge”s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, or just the number of sailing stories I have read, but albatross have always been my epitome of the wild southern ocean and long sea voyages. Or just that they have some of the broadest wingspans on the planet. I have always wanted to see one - unlikely in my usual haunts in the temperate North Atlantic.

But Isla Espanola has a huge breeding colony of albatross, and it was just a two hour boat ride away. Espanola is one of the uninhabited Galápagos Islands, more or less in the same condition it was when Darwin sailed by in the 1830s. Darwin did not stop here, but the wildlife is as unexpectedly tame as the San Cristobal wildlife encountered by Darwin. Right off the zodiac, we ran into colorful painted iguanas, and a days old sea lion pup. The wild coast consisted of jagged black lava cliffs painted with guano. Rafts of iguana were everywhere, and a short ways up the path we saw blue footed boobies with chicks who let us approach within a few feet. There were Nacza boobies on the cliffs, a few of the swallow tailed gulls who followed us at sea, and masses of iguana.

And the albatross. First, just one, nesting on the ground by the trail, unperturbed by our passage. Then dozens more nesting farther down the trail. We could see albatross soaring over the cliffs further down, and soon we were ini the midst of them, some gliding along at eye level, others soaring high above. Robin saw one or two take flight by jumping from the cliff.

On the way out, there was an albatross and it’s chick in the middle of the trail. Our guide told us to pass one by one, and slowly, to avoid disturbing them.

We also saw colorful Espanola Lava Lizards, Galapagos Hawks, some flycatchers, cactus finches, Darwin’s finches, a Galapagos snake. I have never seen such richness in wildlife on such a short walk!

After the hike, we motored over to a rocky cove for snorkeling with the sea lions. All in all a wonderful day.

All this comes at a price however. I asked our captain how much fuel the motor catamaran burned today - he said 108 gallons. With nine tourists on board, that works out to about 12 gallons each. Our combined 24 gallons is nearly as much fuel as we burned getting from New York to the Galapagos on the Mabel Rose! Would that we were permitted to sail our boat to Espanola! But access to the park islands is tightly controlled, with a limited number of boats allowed at a time, and only locally registered boats allowed. Although there was a sailing rigged tourist boat at the anchorage, it was more of a motor sailor than a sailboat, and it did not look like they put their sails up much.