Today we found ourselves moored at North Seymour Island, described by one of guidebooks as the “most popular … of the Islands.” And definitely with good reason: the bird life on this small island is truly extraordinary.
We disembarked onto the island a little before nine in the morning. There were at least a dozen sea lions waiting for us, but somehow sea lions seemed so … yesterday. We dutifully oohed and ahed over a mother and her baby, but the moment we saw our first blue-footed booby we completely forgot about the mammals.
The term “booby” is a corruption of the Spanish “bobo,” a term meaning crazy. The early explorers saw the boobies engaged in what struck them as crazy antics. The Spaniards, as usual, were rather imperceptive: the booby acts erratically in order to fend off predators who would feed on their eggs or young. Birds of prey apparently find young boobies rather tasty.
I have yet to read a good explanation for why having blue feet is a survival adaptation for the birds.
The feet of juvenile boobies are a vaguely gray color.
But it does make the adults strikingly handsome birds.
But the real stars of the day were the “fragata”, the frigate birds. The males have this enormous red pouch which they inflate to attract females.
Young birds, male or female, are mostly white and just as cute as can be.
Birds in the Galápagos are so tame that the seem unperturbed by humans close to their nests.
We also saw some of the usual wildlife as we walked around North Seymour. We were struck, however, by one of the land iguanas climbing in a tree instead of simply sitting around on the ground.
Soon, however, it was time to return to the ship for lunch and some rest time. Trish and John, our honeymoon couple, look radiant even while waiting for a dinghy.
We had a nice lunch — I loved the Swiss chard in a light cream sauce — and then everybody read and napped. The passengers on this ship are readers, particularly the kids. After lunch every single person had a book or a Kindle in front of them. I suppose people who like to read go to the Galápagos instead of say, Cancun.
In the afternoon we stopped off at Balchas Beach on Santa Cruz. This area is directly adjacent to Baltras, the island that the American used as a base during World War II. When the war was over, it was cheaper so sink some of the barges and ships than to send them back to the states. The Ecuadorians could not pronounce “barges” easily, so Barges Beach became Balchas Beach. Despite the hulks of twisted steel under the water, the beach looks pristine.
On Balchas, there is sometimes a small colony of flamingos. Unfortunately, the water was apparently not to their liking right now and they had looked for other places on the island. Our group consoled itself by trying to do the Flamingo pose in yoga. John did pretty well
but none of us old folks have the twistiness of the young.
I think Margot may be perfect at everything.
Speaking of the kids, they loved the beach
and we enjoyed watching them frolic in tide pools and in the surf.
We did see some wildlife on the beach such as pelicans
and crabs.
This afternoon we had our most National Geographic moment when we saw giant sea turtles mating.
I am not sure that the younger kids completely figured out what was going on, and fortunately the older ones did not seem to feel the need to inform them. I cannot believe what great families we have on this trip.
Tonight is the last night of our Galápagos adventure, and although we are eager to explore Brazil, we will be sad to go. It has been great.
