North Seymour and Rabida Islands

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Oh, my, what a day.  Up at 6:30, breakfast at 6:45.  We were surprised by our family with great t-shirts which said on the front, “55 years and the adventures continue” and on the back was an image of my 1963 New Hampshire license plate which was “VP & JF”. 

 

We left by Zodiac at 7:30 for a “dry landing” on North Seymour Island for a 2 km hike.  The rules here require that we’re off of this island by 10:00 AM.  It was somewhat rigorous in the heat and humidity, but what amazing sights.  The island is volcanic, and the first part of the walk was on volcanic boulders.  Fauna included land iguanas:

Swallowtail gulls:

And our favorites, Blue-footed Boobies:

We saw many frigate birds, the males preening to attract the females who decide with which male they’d like to mate:

The males help incubate the eggs:

The eggs are hatching now:

We took the Zodiac back to the ship and during lunch we sailed to Rabida Island where, after lunch, we had our first snorkeling outing. It was truly incredible with crystal clear waters, and very large numbers of very beautiful fish.  We snorkeled in wonderful wet suits, so that even though the water was relatively warm, we were able to stay in for quite a while.  It was wonderful.  Immediately after snorkeling we had a ‘wet landing’ on the Rabida beach which has red sand because of the lava here which has a high iron content.  Here are some marine iguanas on the red lava:

  

And here is a pelican and some monumental cactus:

The after-dinner activity was a movie by David Attenborough on the Galapagos.  None of us made it—we all went right to sleep.