Hood (or Española) is the seventh biggest island of the Galapagos, with a land area of 23 square miles —
about two-thirds the size of Manhattan. It is relatively low-lying —only 675 feet above sea level at maximum
elevation. First named after an English admiral, Viscount Samuel Hood, the Ecuadorians call it Española, after
the country of Spain (=España). Many visitors to the Galapagos rate Hood as their favorite island. Usually, the
visit will begin in the morning with a visit to Gardner Beach, and in the afternoon the boat sails west around the
island for a walk around Punta Suarez. The Hood mockingbird and waved albatross are found here and nowhere else in the
world. Recently, the Galapagos National Park Service has successfully reintroduced the islands' unique race of
giant tortoises. They had been reduced to a mere thirteen individuals, all of which were removed and then bred in
captivity (at Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz) until sufficient hatchlings had grown big enough to
survive on their own in the wild. The reintroduced tortoises have begun to breed, restablishing the population—a
Galapagos success story.
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