Española, Spanish for "Little Spain", is named for Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea owing to its discovery by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage.
[2] However, the British captain James Colnett later misunderstood Cowley's maps and accidentally transferred that name to what is now Floreana Island.
[3] Located at the extreme southeast of the archipelago, it is considered to be one of the oldest of the islands, having first formed approximately four million years ago.
[citation needed] Its large bays, however, have soft sand and attract Galápagos sea lions.
A major draw is the waved albatrosses since, from March to January, almost the entire world population breeds on the island.