Sunday was a sensational day in the Galapagos Islands. We had the chance to visit, not only one, but two islands! The first one was North Seymour; a small island named by pirates in the 17th century, which is actually uplifted submarine lava. To start our day with lots of energy we had some buffet breakfast and of we go on the Zodiacs. North Seymour showed us all the beauty of seabirds in their nesting sites, magnificent and great frigate birds in all the stages of growth, swallow tailed gulls, and of course the very charismatic blue footed boobies. The beauty of Galapagos lays in the lack of fear of these animals, they are always acting naturally so courtship rituals between them in not unknown to us anymore. Also, we saw some marine iguanas, lava lizards, sea lions, several species of land and migratory birds and land iguanas, which are a weird case, because is not a natural population of the island, they where brought there in the 1930´s by Cap. Allan Hancock, an oilman that was concern about the possible extinction of these animals and actually save them by placing 72 land iguanas on North Seymour.
Back in the boat, we started preparing all the details for the snorkel adventures, so we tried on masks, flippers and wetsuits while navigating to Rabida Island.
Lunch was delicious as always and after that, our photo instructor and naturalist, Walter Perez, gave an introductory talk and helpful advice on photography. For the afternoon we had two outings, first snorkeling with colorful fish, sea lions and even a white tip reef shark and then a walk during sunset in the red island of Rabida. We end the day with the daily recap in the lounge with some wonderful insights about evolution and marine ecology with our team of Naturalist and then, time for dinner. Another delightful day and we look foreword to what Galapagos has to offer in tomorrow’s activities in the recently erupted volcano of Fernandina Island!
