WEATHER: Overcast and 23C in the morning – Sunny and 23C in the afternoon
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The snorkeling
BUMMER OF THE DAY: The sun not out in for the snorkeling – would have been awesome
WORD OF THE DAY: “Safety first to avoid the worst”
ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Yellow tailed sturgeon, spotted manta ray, large trigger fish, Eel garden, white tipped shark, Galapagos doves, Naughty turns, Brown pelicans, Lava lizard, frigate birds, and Swallow tailed gulls, large angel fish.
We had an early start this morning with a wakeup call at 6.30am. We have a pretty jammed packed day today, hence the early start. We departed the ship at 8am for our 2 hour walk around North Seymour Island. The main animal attractions we would be seeing today would be of the bird variety including a large population of Frigate birds (the black birds with the red balloon) and more Blue Footed Boobies.
North Seymour is a small island near Baltra Island in the Galapagos Islands. It was formed by uplift of a submarine lava formation. The whole island is covered with low, bushy vegetation. It is named after an English nobleman, Lord Hugh Seymour and has an area of 1.9 km² and a maximum altitude of 28 meters. We walked along the visitor trail which was approximately 2 km in length crossing through the inland of the island and exploring the rocky coast.
Just as we were pulling into the dry landing, the Blue-footed boobies are great at fishing and this was no shown first hand when there was a magnificent splash and 5 seconds later a Blue Boobie pops up and then flies off. It is an amazing sight to see as they are like an arrow as they hit the water have been known to go as deep as 3m when they enter, catching a fish and then heading back to the nest. Hunting off-shore, the boobies dive from mid-air into the sea in order to catch fish. Successful, they return to the island with their prize to feed their young. Seriously you need to see it to believe. It is one of things, every time I see it I just marvel at what nature can do.
Upon arrival at the rocky cliff and seeing some sea lions we headed out on the said trail. It was a rocky path, so we had to watch where you were stepping so you didn’t roll an ankle. The Iguana’s don’t seem to be in abundance here, but there is one that is endemic to this island and he is yellow in colour, so we are keeping our eyes peeled for him. Along the way the trail passed colonies of blue-footed boobies and magnificent Frigate birds all co-habitating together and happily by the looks of it. The highlight for me today was going to be the Frigate birds and getting a picture with their pouch all puffed up and it didn’t take us long to find one along the trail. It takes around 25 minutes for him to puff up the red pouch and around 2 hours for it to deflate. It looks amazing and I got some great photos.
The magnificent frigatebird, a large black bird with a long wingspan, and a hooked beak, is extremely fast and has excellent vision. Frigatebirds are known for the large red pouch on their necks. During mating season the males thrown back their heads, inflate the pouch (sometimes to the size of a soccer ball), and shake trying to capture the attention of female frigates. It was mating season this time of year, so we were quite lucky and you could see the females circling above looking for a male for the season. We were also lucky enough to see a chick with its mum, and he was cute as a button!
Boobies and frigates share an interesting relationship. Sharing the same nesting area on North Seymour blue-footed boobies nest on the ground making their nests from the twigs of the palo santos trees, while the magnificent frigate bird nests just above them in the saltbushes.
Frigatebirds named for the warships once used by pirates are the pirates of Galapagos birds. In contrast to the booby, frigates are poor fishers. Their bodies produce very little oil for their wings and they are not waterproof. Unable to spend time in the water fishing they must rely on food stolen from other birds to feed themselves and their young.
After doing the 2km circuit and 2 hours later we ended back to the cliffs and our waiting zodiac back to the ship. I would feel bad if I didn’t take some photos of the sea lions, so I snapped off a few and as we were doing this some of the female Frigate birds were riding some of the air currents just above our heads, seriously she would have been only 3m above us. They are magnificent looking birds when they are in flight. So fare what a great morning and it’s only 10.30am.
We only had a 20 minute turn around once back on the ship to get changed into our swimmers and get our snorkel gear and head back out in the zodiacs to do some deep water snorkeling. By this stage I think I’m sort of a Rambo snorkeler and was wondering what I have been worried about all these years not swimming in the sea and not doing snorkeling. Welcome back confidence and I have to say I think I enjoy it. Pfffff I have been worried for nothing, right. It was a current snorkel this morning as the sea was a little choppy, so we got dropped a little up breeze and we let the current just sweep us down to the point where we would be collected by the zodiac. Keeping with the Rambo theme, Amy and I are still not in wetsuits and the only 2 of the whole zodiac that aren’t. Well the water this morning was to say the least FREEZING. But we just have to suck it up and we counted una, dos treis and jumped in and lost out breath for a few seconds to acclimatize and then we were good to go. Well after being in the water for 15 minutes I see my first shark ever, while I AM IN THE WATER. Amy was swimming behind me and had seen it earlier, but had decided against telling me, well at least while I was still swimming, but the white tipped shark was swimming my way and I saw him and so did Nicola and Mike at the same time and the 3 of us all popped our heads out of the water to all point and let the rest of the group know, and by the time we had our heads back in the water he was gone. I have to say I wasn’t too scared and I felt damn amazing that I had faced a fear and I hadn’t freaked out. Okay the shark wasn’t that big, maybe just over a meter, but it is a SHARK and I WAS IN THE WATER!!!! High five me man. People, who know me, know this was a massive deal for me. I snorkeled with a shark and survived. Time ticked and we saw massive schools of fish, a spotted manta ray that swam in a circle around us, so graceful, an eel garden, which I didn’t get till I found it, and basically the eels were sticking their heads out of the sand like swaying leaves in the wind, and there would have been 15-20 of them. It looked so cute even if they were eels….., we saw 2 massive Large Trigger fish which are like disc shaped and the size of 2 dinner plates and my most favorite fish is the Yellow-tailed Surgeons. They are such a pretty blue fish, with yellow tips on the tails and they travel in schools all the time. I have seen them every time we have snorkeled. What an underwater paradise this was this morning. Apparently we were out there for an hour – it went so quick.
So all that was done before lunch time. There is no rest for the wicked on a Galapagos cruise that is for sure. So returning back to the ship, showering and lunching the afternoon was free till 3.30pm. We finally were able to sort out some washing. Apparently washing days are only on Tuesdays, so we were going against the rules asking on a Saturday. Amy and I aren’t sure what the big deal is if they have a washing machine on the ship what day it happens to be, but we sweet talked Marco, the hotel manager, and we were able to get some washing done today. It is free, but we just had to tip the guy for his time. Sure sounds fair. It will be good to have majority clean clothes for the start of my next tour.
Today is only the 26th November here in Ecuador, but back home it is the 27th November, which happens to be my birthday. So it was great to log onto Facebook this afternoon and have 77 messages from people all over the world wishing me a Happy Birthday. Birthdays are a big deal for me and I can’t tell you how special it was to have so many people make an effort to wish me a great day. I have been so lucky making and meeting amazing people through my journey, not forgetting my true and trusted friends back home. I am blessed to know you all and thanks for making me feel ‘special’ on my day. Well a day before where I am but on the day back in Oz. I have no reception on my mobile, which is super frustrating and thank goodness for the internet and Wi-Fi.
This afternoon we had a walk also on Santa Cruz Island, but from another bay / point called Dragon Hill or the Spanish name Cerro Dragon. It opened to visitors in 1998. After a dry landing at a dock, the walk took us to a hypersalinic (saltier than the ocean) lagoon behind the beach, often frequented by flamingos, common stilts, pintail ducks and other species of birds. We weren’t lucky enough to see any flamingos today unfortunately, but there were some great reflection photos off the lagoon. This walk this afternoon was purely for scenery and not so much wildlife which made a nice change and to just enjoy the environment around us. After around 45 minutes we walked up a short hill, which rewarded us with a great view of the bay and a nesting site of land iguanas. This is where we met up with our other group that had started the other way and we got a group shot of us all at the view. Both Carlos and Antonio have camera’s and they are taking pictures of us during the week to put together to a slide show on our final night and then we can get copies of the photos a week after the cruise has finished off the web site. It’s a great idea! Many of the Iguanas that nest here have been repatriated by the Charles Darwin Research Station. We were still to see one of these guys here. We saw plenty of tail markings in the dirt, but not the actual animal at this stage and we didn’t see one for the 2 hour walk.
So back to the ship, where they had cool drinks and some snacks served on the sun deck for us which was quite nice, as the sun was about to set on yet another awesome day in The Galapagos. Each day brings us a new experience and animals and it really is an untouched paradise out here. We had free time after that, which is generally only an hour or so before the 7pm briefing for the next day and then dinner at 7.30pm. Dinner is a much livelier affair than last night with our new friends Jane and Dermot and Nicola and Mike, so it is good to have some laughs and share stories over dinner. No-one replaces Charles and Lada, but it is nice to have company all the same.
Amy went for the star gazing at 9pm and came back afterwards to let me know that she saw some sharks that were attracted to the ships lights. There were 4 of them and apparently they weren’t the pissy 1.5m sharks, they were BIG buggers. Talk about deflating or popping the Rambo snorkeler’s dream. This has placed my original fear right back on track and I am thinking of not doing my deep snorkel in the morning. On the upside, we are moving from this spot some time tonight, so we leave ‘those’ sharks behind, but they can be anywhere right?! This is Amy’s payback for the snake sighting so all is far in love and phobias.
So it is good night from me and good night from bitch face Amy (for the shark story) and when I wake tomorrow I will be another year older, making me now a comfortable 28 – again……
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