North Seymour and Rabida Islands, 3/5/2023, National Geographic Islander II
Aboard the
National Geographic Islander II
Galápagos
On our expedition aboard National Geographic Islander II, we visited Floreana Island this morning. Our first stop was Post Office Bay. We kayaked along the canals of the bay and enjoyed amazing encounters with sea lions and marine iguanas. Then we went to drop off and pick up letters at the post office the barrel. After breakfast, we snorkeled in Champion Islet.
In the afternoon, we changed locations to Punta Cormorant, where we walked along a green sand beach. The sand gets its color from an abundance of olivine. We finished the day with an amazing sunset.
Charles was raised in the Galápagos Islands. He is the grandson of Rolf Wittmer, the first person documented to have been born on the island of Floreana after his parents, Margret and Heinz Wittmer, emigrated from Germany in 1932.
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We started our day with a Zodiac ride around Punta Vicente Roca. We also had an amazing snorkel excursion among turtles and sea lions. In the afternoon, we topped off a lovely day with an amazing walk on lava at Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island, which happens to be an island so pristine that it doesn’t have feral mammals. What it does have is a lava field full of iguanas. This area started to erode, changing the entire topography of the island, making it perfect for these iguanas to find sedimentary areas to nest.
North Seymour is known for having the largest nesting colony of magnificent frigatebirds in the Galapagos Islands. On the natural history walk along the dry palo santo forest, we encountered not only male frigatebirds displaying the gular pouches, but countless yellow land iguanas. Lava lizards and different species of finches were also seen. In the afternoon, National Geographic Islander II relocated to our next island, Rabida. This island offered an exotic landscape, as its sand is red colored due to the large concentration of iron in its lava. Here, we practiced snorkeling and later in the afternoon we went back to explore the brackish water lagoon behind the beach where flamingos are often observed. It was another spectacular day in the Galapagos Islands!
Our first full day of our expedition was spent exploring Santa Cruz Island, a central island of the archipelago with plenty of human and wildlife attractions. After we landed, a bus took us to El Trapiche, a great historical site in the highlands of Santa Cruz which provided a great example of how people who came to Galapagos at the beginning of its colonization survived. We learned how coffee, cacao, and sugar cane products, including sugar cane alcohol, is produced. We even had the chance to taste all of these delicious products. We took the bus again and drove to a higher location on Santa Cruz Island, to Los Gemelos. These outstanding geological formations are sinkholes of approximately 100-meters deep, surrounded by a unique Scalesia pedunculata forest. Walking through this dense forest was amazing due to the presence of different species of Darwin’s finches. A delicious lunch was waiting for us at a mesmerizing site, a ranch/restaurant surrounded by Galapagos giant tortoises. After we finished our lunch, we enjoyed a stroll to look for this gigantic and beautiful reptile, which gave us the chance to take wonderful pictures with them.
