North Seymour & Rábida Islands
We started a New Year on National Geographic Endeavour with new visitor sites! North Seymour was our first visit today; we disembarked at 7:30am to find to our surprise a newborn sea lion in the middle of the trail. Mom slept protecting the pup with her head. The mother was tired, probably from a long night of labor. We didn’t want to disturb her, so we continued our walk.
Frigate birds were flying over our heads; we observed males with their pouches inflated trying to get the attention of females. Some juveniles from last year were calling for food; females were flying all over the sky, some chicks were sitting on nests. The bird activity in this place is outstanding; not just Frigate birds but Blue-footed boobies, too! As we left the shore behind and entered the island we found boobies displaying their very famous booby dance!
The sun was strong at 9:30, but we weren’t the only ones feeling it. We found a couple of Galápagos land iguanas looking for shade under Prickly Pear cactus.
Snorkeling was refreshing and so worth it! Galápagos sea lions came to play with us, and fur seals swam nearby. We found some White-tip reef sharks sleeping in the bottom, and we had a huge Marble Ray swimming with us – and this was just in the morning.
In the afternoon we arrived at the red island, Rabida. We snorkeled with a red sandy bottom covered by sea stars, all different kind of fish were around. Glass-bottom boat rides and kayaking were other options, too. Later we went all to the beach and from there we started our walk. Rabida is a great combination of colors, the red of the island itself, the white of the dry Palo Santo forest, the green of the forest higher and the turquoise of the waters surrounding it. We had a delightful day! The first full day of our expedition, and of this year!
