North Seymour and Rabida Islands
The breaking waves washed out the rocks and hundreds of seabirds were taking benefit of the thermal currents up in the sky. The sun warmed up the reptiles while blue-footed boobies were dancing, showing each other their blue-turquoise feet, to fall in love. This is what we first experienced as soon as we put a foot on North Seymour, a very small but beautiful island with plenty of wildlife.
This is one of the few places in Galápagos where almost year-round you find colonies of frigatebirds (both, magnificent and great ones) nesting, and we saw the males with their impressive pouches blown up, as part of the “show off” to attract the females, in hopes of having a single baby that is going to be cared for by them; these chicks generally have good parental care.
During our walk along a narrow trail covered by green-gray grass we found the splendor of Galápagos: land iguanas with those bright yellow colors, swallow-tailed gulls nesting, finches eating seeds from the ground, some lava lizards, and then finally along the shoreline where the trail becomes wider and sandy, some snakes were warming up on the rocks, sea lions rested after a long journey of fishing, marine iguanas basked under the sun and pelicans plunged into the green-blue ocean. What an amazing and spectacular place! “Unforgettable!” exclaimed one of our travelers on our way back to the National Geographic Endeavour.
Once back on board we cooled off in the pool area and our wellness specialist on board gave us some tips about relaxation. A few minutes later our Peruvian lunch was ready; we needed it, for the activities for the afternoon were many: glass-bottom boating, kayaking, deep-water snorkeling, and a walk on the red beach of Rabida Island, our next destination. As soon as we arrived, the kayakers started their adventure while we went snorkeling, finding turtles, multicolored fishes and very playful sea lions that entertained all of us.
Rabida is known as the “Red Island” because of the amount of iron found here, a mineral that gets its color from oxidation. We landed on its beach, and found some sea lions and seabirds; we walked behind it, where a few feet inland is a small brackish water lagoon with some migratory birds and, sometimes, flamingos. We spotted a female vermillion flycatcher, one of the prettiest birds, and in the company of yellow warblers, mockingbirds and finches we contemplated the sunset that illuminated the islands with golden colors, leaving in our minds a very special memory that for sure is going to be with us forever.
