Frigates gliding along the coastline showed us where our landing site was, and upon arrival to the lava rock at our landing site a young sea lion moved close by. This was a sunny day with cool winds that helped the frigates and other seabirds that glided in front of us, but at the other end of the trail a blue-footed booby was making different sounds and stopped every now and then to whistle and point its beak to the sky, opening the wings at the same time. It was performing to get the attention of a female that flew by, and then the male booby stopped as she flew past, looked at the sky and tried again when another female flew by. We left the area and kept walking, and the next experience was having a land iguana on one side of the trail, motionless, but every now and then opening and closing one or both eyes.
In the distance a bright red spot made sounds and as we approached it, and we could distinguish that it was a male frigate with a fully inflated red pouch. Further into the walk another male had company—a female frigate was sitting on a branch. Evidently all that perseverance and that bright red pouch must have produced some results, as it worked for this male. The consequences of the red pouch eventually translate into finding a female and after a while this leads to an egg and a young chick that will begin as a fuzzy white ball and will turn into a big bird with a white head. So, on every tree where we found a white headed juvenile frigate, some months ago there were some males with a red pouch.
In the afternoon we visited Rabida Island. First we explored the ocean around the island where a marine iguana was feeding underwater and suddenly a blue-footed booby dove right next to the Zodiac, a fur seal also decided to go diving and swam past the snorkelers.
After getting back on board and getting dry, it was time to explore the island itself. The red sandy beach had several sea lions waiting for us, a few pups moved around the group, and during the visit a Galápagos hawk kept gliding above our group, for some moments it looked like a kite, staying motionless in the air, as the sun hit one side. While we returned to the beach we saw a hawk, but this time it was on land looking over a high rock. While we arrived back at the beach the sun was setting over one of the volcanoes on Isabela Island and a sea lion decided to come to shore to take a rest.
The perfect final scene for this magnificent day.
