Galápagos Islands: North Seymour and Rabida

This morning we had a choice of going for a 1.2 mile hike over some rocky terrain at 6am or taking a ride with the Zodiac at 7am. We chose the Zodiac. (I’m not awake enough for rough terrain that early!)

North Seymour is quite close to Santa Cruz. We were lucky enough to be in the Zodiac with only two other guests, the naturalist (Felipe), and the man driving the boat (Sebastian). We had a wonderful time discovering fur seal sea lions on the rocks, searching for Frigate birds (both Great and Magnificent Frigaates), iguanas, and other birds.

We saw quite a few fur seal sea lions. They look like seals, especially when wet.

When they are dry, you can really see their fluffy brown fur. They were hunted for this coat, but luckily are still around today.

These sea lions were adorable. You know they are actually sea lions because they have ears. Also, there are no seals in the Galapagos because it’s the wrong climate.

We were looking for the male frigates displaying their courtship tell, which looks like a red tomato on their neck area. It’s a patch of skin that they inflate. I saw pictures in which they were on the ground and it’s very impressive, but it was also pretty cool watching them fly by with it inflated.

There were blue footed boobies and these Nazca Booobies.

We saw a couple of Lava Gulls.

I spotted this iguana, who is on one side of the rock. Can you see him?

There was another iguana next to the cactus, guarding his food on the top of the cliff.

The best thing we saw was this baby frigate chick. Look at how fluffy that fur is!

After the ride, we had breakfast and then had to attend an information session about snorkeling and kayaking. It does not look easy to get in and out of the kayaks from the Zodiac! We then all went down to the first deck to get our wet suits and snorkel gear. We all looked pretty silly.

We decided to rest, but we were interrupted quite a few times by announcements. They were jumping off the back deck and the second deck into the water. No, thank you!

After lunch, we were scheduled to go snorkeling on Rabida Island. I always get nervous before going. It was pretty hot in the wet suits, but it was very buoyant in the water. I opted to also have a blow up life vest. We were dropped off on the beach, which was great for beginners to get used to the water. I was going to use fins, but then opted not to do so.

We swam next to the cliff and saw all kinds of cool fish. Then we found a massive school of fish! It was unreal. There was a pretty big shark hanging out on the bottom and then a smaller shark swam by as well. I was not nervous at all because there were all those fish to eat!

Then the fish would part and a sea lion would swim right next to you! One popped up in front of me and then swam right under me. It was so cool!. The Zodiacs were all nearby, so I felt very safe. When it was time to go back I felt like I was really lagging behind so I opted to get in the boat. I found out later that there was a bit of a current on the return and it would have been a little easier with flippers. Oh well.

We had to rinse our wetsuits and water shoes when we returned to the ship. We had about half an hour to clean up and change before we got right back on the Zodiac. This time we were getting off at the beach, but going for a walk. It was another wet landing so we needed water shoes or sandals.

There were some bones and shells arranged artfully on the beach. The bones were from sea lions.

There were also quite a few sea lions on the beach. Two of them kept creeping up the beach and we had to move out of the way so they could go where they wanted.

There was a lagoon a short walk from the beach. This was a Galapagos mockingbird on the tree as we walked in and later, one came right up to me on the beach and sang. It was pretty neat.

In the lagoon were flamingos. I don’t have an amazing camera, but I could see the egg on the other side of the lagoon. There were also some baby flamingos.