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Published: July 30th 2005
Frigate in flight
This bird just hovers in the air magnificently (or is it greatly).New island, new attitude.
We had breakfast at our new breakfast place, just a couple blocks from our hotel. As usual, the last one there was Carlos. The minibus picked us up at the hotel after breakfast. It was about an hour ride to the Ithabaca Channel on the other end of the island. Then a short boat ride to North Seymour Island.
On North Seymour, we walked the loop trail. Our guide César (aka Cheche) was very knowledgeable. He also enjoyed all our questions. For example:
Q-Why North Seymour and not just Seymour Island?
A-Baltra used to be called South Seymour.
Q-Do you know our guide from yesterday, Eddy?
A-Maybe. The difficulty is that many people on the islands have the same name. We know each other by nicknames. Wait, was he from Loja? He´s usually the guide on the Sarah Dayuma, right? It must be Eddy Come Perro (dog eater).
Q-Why do you call him that?
A-We call all Lojanos that. There´s a story that many years ago in Loja there was a popular restaurant that was always busy. They served delicious fritada. One day, the police got a tip and checked out the restaurant. It turned
Ryan with Daphne Mayor y Menor in the background
Is that not the best looking hat you have ever seen? out they´d been serving dog at the restaurant. So now we call all Lojanos "Come Perro".
Don´t worry, we also learned a lot about the flora and the fauna from Cheche. We saw Blue-footed boobies nesting and Cheche told us how to tell them apart. The females are larger, have larger pupils, and quack. The males are smaller, have smaller pupils, and whistle.
We also learned how to tell the Great Frigatebird apart from the Magnicent Frigatebird (two different species). The male Great frigatebirds have a greenish sheen to the feathers behind their head. The female Great frigates have red eyerings. The chicks are all white. The male Magnificent frigates have a purplish sheen to the feathers behind their heads. The female magnificent frigates have blue eyerings and the chicks have reddish heads. We got to practice our frigate identification skills as we passed their nests.
We also had our first wild land iguana sightings on North Seymour. The ones at the Charles Darwin Research Station don´t count as wild sightings. They were in a rather zoo-like environment. On North Seymour they were more difficult to spot as they camoflauged pretty well with the surroundings.
After
finishing the loop, we returned to the boat for lunch and transfered to Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz Island. Here we walked to a salt water lagoon where we saw two flamingos! Cheche looked at them and said they must be juveniles, judging by their coloring. Apparently, the adults have brighter pink coloration due to better nutrition.
Then it was time for snorkeling. The day was very hot and sunny and the sand on the beach scorching. We were all pretty happy to get in the water. Esther hadn´t been snorkeling before and stuck with us her first time out. We saw lots of colorful fish and some coral. After about an hour and a half at the beach, it was time to head back to Puerto Ayora. On the drive back, we saw that several people in our group had underestimated the power of the sun so close to the equator. Several of our new tour-mates were bright red from sunburn. Ryan, however, had wisely used waterproof SPF 50 sunblock and escaped the same fate.
We arrived back in Pto. Ayora around 4:30pm and decided to walk out to Playa Tortuga. Fifi (our local friend) had told
it us that it was a nice beach to hang out on. Also, our guide book described it as one of the most beautiful beaches in the Galapagos. It did not disappoint. The scenery was spectacular. Bright blue water and soft white sand. We WERE warned not to swim, though (dangerous rip currents). We walked back to town as the sun was setting. A great way to end the day.
WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS: Great frigatebirds (flying, perching, nesting), Magnificent frigatebirds (flying, perching, nesting), Swallow-tailed gulls, Blue-footed boobies, Audobon's Shearwater, Brown pelicans, Elliot's Storm petrel, Lava gull, Common Noddy, Greater Flamingo, Great Blue Heron, Black-necked stilt, Whimbrel, Galapagos dove, Yellow warbler, Galapagos Mockingbird, Darwin's finches, Black Sea Turtle, Marine iguana (hassi subspecies), Land iguana, Galapagos Lava lizard, Sea lions, House mouse, Fish, Galapagos grasshopper
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