Galapagos Day One- Santa Cruz y North Seymour

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We departed Colonial House at 6 AM for the airport in order to catch our flight to Isla Baltra where the main airport for the Galapagos is located. After a bit of confusion regarding how to purchase transit tickets and where the security line started, we made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare before our flight departed at 7:40. After a short comfortable flight connecting through Guayaquil to Isla Baltra, we met up with the guide and the rest of the passengers on the yacht. From there we took a bus to a small pier, hopped on a Zodiac, and boarded the Floreana.

Our first stop on the Floreana was the Island of North Seymour, which it is tiny island just North of Isla Baltra/Santa Cruz. On the way to the island, we already noticed how unique the animals were in the Galapagos. A group of frigate birds started to follow the boat, swooping down and interacting with everyone on the boat. A few people got pooped on (including Sean hehe). We started with a short walk that highlighted some of the animal life on the island. There we saw a decent amount of blue-footed boobies, land iguanas, and frigate birds. The male frigate birds were especially interesting because of their inflated red throat area, which looks like a balloon. We learned this mechanism is used to attract female frigate birds.

Following the walk we did a bit of snorkeling of the coast of North Seymour. The water was a little cold and cloudy at times, but we still saw a good amount of fish and Carly even spotted a mantaray.

After dinner that evening, a few black-tipped sharks were spotted just off the stern of our boat. They were pretty large, about five or six feet long.

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