Mystery Island, Galapagos
The inversion layer hung low, threatening us with poor visibility. But the early morning outing succeeded beyond expectations: the air was clear, air temperatures warm, penguins appeared in abundance (for the island, eight individuals sighted is remarkable), and the Post Office was open. The postmaster general, Lawrence, stamped the cards that were to go into the barrel and on return to the Islander, breakfast was served.
Water temperatures have been slowly lowering over the past few weeks, but still way within reasonable snorkeling tolerance. In fact, we stayed in for over an hour! It appears this year’s “hot, wet” season will be ending sooner than anticipated, as the cooling of the waters and drying of the air indicates. However, snorkeling is a true highlight here around Champion Island, and she almost never disappoints. Visibility was clear down to over 100 feet, the current relatively gentle, and the sea lions playful; quite unusual was encountering friendly adults as well as youngsters, as Morgan found out in a personal encounter.
The bird-watching Zodiac cruise turned into an everything-watching cruise when sea lions pulled our bow line and later, over a dozen huge (over 3 feet) Wahoo fish circled our Zodiac for a long time, coming in close enough for unmistakable identification while Audubon shearwaters and brown noddy terns fed in a fluttering flock in the area. And yes, the famous and rare Floreana mockingbird flew from cactus to cactus with nesting material, a prime sighting for everyone’s list.
After lunch we heard more from Paula about the mysterious events surrounding the disappearance of people from this island in past years, though all cabin tags and guests were accounted for at the end of the day (checked carefully). Before the sunset however, Devil’s Crown was snorkeled and there were several more additions to our list, including a turtle, a booby which dove a few feet away from us, and just as we returned to the Zodiac, a young (and small) Galápagos shark came by, curious about the activity above it. Sharks were also part of the land visit when the fine white sand beach of Pt. Cormorant proved the meeting place for green marine turtles, an enormous school of cownose rays along with numerous white-tipped reef sharks, and a single magnificent frigate bird, which all patrolled back and forth. Some may be waiting for a potential meal of turtle hatchlings, but others were making do with a small school of fish for which brown pelicans and blue-footed boobies joined the feeding frenzy, diving again and again in extremely shallow surf.
The mystery island didn’t disappoint us on this first of April, no fools are we.
The inversion layer hung low, threatening us with poor visibility. But the early morning outing succeeded beyond expectations: the air was clear, air temperatures warm, penguins appeared in abundance (for the island, eight individuals sighted is remarkable), and the Post Office was open. The postmaster general, Lawrence, stamped the cards that were to go into the barrel and on return to the Islander, breakfast was served.
Water temperatures have been slowly lowering over the past few weeks, but still way within reasonable snorkeling tolerance. In fact, we stayed in for over an hour! It appears this year’s “hot, wet” season will be ending sooner than anticipated, as the cooling of the waters and drying of the air indicates. However, snorkeling is a true highlight here around Champion Island, and she almost never disappoints. Visibility was clear down to over 100 feet, the current relatively gentle, and the sea lions playful; quite unusual was encountering friendly adults as well as youngsters, as Morgan found out in a personal encounter.
The bird-watching Zodiac cruise turned into an everything-watching cruise when sea lions pulled our bow line and later, over a dozen huge (over 3 feet) Wahoo fish circled our Zodiac for a long time, coming in close enough for unmistakable identification while Audubon shearwaters and brown noddy terns fed in a fluttering flock in the area. And yes, the famous and rare Floreana mockingbird flew from cactus to cactus with nesting material, a prime sighting for everyone’s list.
After lunch we heard more from Paula about the mysterious events surrounding the disappearance of people from this island in past years, though all cabin tags and guests were accounted for at the end of the day (checked carefully). Before the sunset however, Devil’s Crown was snorkeled and there were several more additions to our list, including a turtle, a booby which dove a few feet away from us, and just as we returned to the Zodiac, a young (and small) Galápagos shark came by, curious about the activity above it. Sharks were also part of the land visit when the fine white sand beach of Pt. Cormorant proved the meeting place for green marine turtles, an enormous school of cownose rays along with numerous white-tipped reef sharks, and a single magnificent frigate bird, which all patrolled back and forth. Some may be waiting for a potential meal of turtle hatchlings, but others were making do with a small school of fish for which brown pelicans and blue-footed boobies joined the feeding frenzy, diving again and again in extremely shallow surf.
The mystery island didn’t disappoint us on this first of April, no fools are we.
