"Gardener Bay" Isla Española Things to Do Tip by MalenaN

Gardener Bay is situated on the northeast side of Isla Española and here there is a beautiful long white sandy beach and turquoise water. We visited the beach at Gardener Bay on the 4th day of the cruise with Cachalote. After breakfast we took the panga to go ashore and by the beach there is a wet landing.

There is no trail at Gardener Bay but you can walk up and down the long beach. There is a Sea Lion colony and here and there you will see Sea Lions lying on the beach. On the beach we also saw the skeleton of a Sea Lion and a group of Hood Mockingbirds having a feast on turtle eggs. From the sand dunes came creeping vines of Morning Glory with purple flowers. I walked to the rocks in the end of the beach and on the rocks, covered with green algae, there are Marine Iguanas and some colourful Sally Lightfoot Crabs.

You can swim and snorkel from the beach at Gardener Bay so I had brought the snorkelling equipment , even if we were going to snorkel more after the visit at the beach. I wanted to practice diving to the bottom and this was a good place for that.

Gardener Bay is a popular visitor site so you will probably not be alone here. When we visited there were several other boats anchored in the bay and many groups on the beach. If I compare the beach at Gardener Bay with the beach at Cerro Brujo, which we had visited the day before, I liked Cerro Brujo better. The reason is only because we were alone there and it was such a beautiful and tranquil place.