North Seymour and Rabida
This morning began with a light, cool breeze that is characteristic of this new season that is just beginning; an open sky with a few clouds, but the cool wind helped keep the temperatures in a comfortable range. As we landed on North Seymour, two blue-footed boobies were performing the courtship dance; he whistled to the air, trying to get as much attention from her as possible, she occasionally honked back – a very impressive welcome committee.
As we walked along the trail, a male frigate was sitting on a nest, while every now and then another male passed by. Halfway into the walk several male frigates showed their inflated pouches and displayed them to the females flying by. It looked like a group of desperate guys, all begging for some attention! As the sun started to rise and the heat began to increase we saw several land iguanas that crawled very slowly on the trail and alongside it, stopping every other minute and then continuing their walk. By the end of the walk we had several frigates of all sizes and ages around the trail; the wind had increased, but as we approached the embarkation area it helped us to stay cooler.
The first activity in the afternoon was snorkeling along the coastline of Rabida Island, observing beautiful starfish, several sharks and a ray; the visibility was very good. Other explorers decided to observe the marine life from the glass-bottom boat, while another group preferred to go kayaking along the coast.
In the afternoon, after returning from snorkeling, we disembarked on Rabida Island, which has an impressive red beach. Two sea lions waited for us upon arrival. One of them, a young pup, decided to sniff the legs of one of our explorers and then did the same with others on the beach. After sniffing several different people it decided to just lie on its back and relax. Definitively it was better to wait for its mother, who was probably hunting out in the sea, than continue sniffing these new creatures on the beach.
The first part of the walk had a great surprise for us – one flamingo on the brackish water lagoon next to the beach. It walked in a very graceful way, moving around the lagoon, and after a while it took off and settled in a new area.
After this rare encounter we continued our visit with an easy walk and during the rest of the excursion we had a young Galápagos hawk gliding above us; in a very elegant way it used the wind currents to move from one area to the other, every now and then looking at us. It landed on some nearby trees a few times and took off again. As expected, this hawk got most of the attention during the visit.
As we returned to the National Geographic Endeavour from Rabida Island and its red-colored beach, we had a final surprise: a beautiful full moon was rising over the clouds, and in the background we could hear the sounds of sea lions barking on the beach.
