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Published: July 12th 2010
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This morning we had a dry landing (that was actually dry!) on North Seymour island and stumbled right into a multitude of sea birds. First the swallow tailed gull (the only bird that hunts at night here, drawing octopus and fish to the surface due to its phosphorescent white body) who mates for life. When one of the couple dies, the partner will die shortly after from starvation, as it will wait in the nest for its partner (distinguished by smell) to return. We also saw, from miles off, the magnificent frigate bird displaying its inflated red chest and drumming its beak on it to attract a mate. The sounds of the island were magical - the machine gun like sound of the drumming of the frigate birds' beaks, the whistling of the male blue footed boobie and honking of the female, and a myriad of other chatter.
The arid landscape made me realize how beautiful Espanola island had been - so lush yet with a magnificent rocky coastline and beautiful beaches.
We had a few hours for lunch and relaxing ahead of our afternoon snorkel, so borrowed Erica's computer to back our photos - we already have 81
photos of blue footed boobies alone! In the afternoon we went to Chinese Hat Island (named due to its shape) and clambered across volcanic rock along the shore to a couple of great view points. Upon finding an empty crab shell Hanzel told us the crab was not dead, but that every 6 months it bubbles acid over its shell to soften it, goes into the sea and fills itself with water, and breaks out of its old shell, already complete with a new one. After our walk we went for a snorkel, hoping to see penguins and sea lions in the water. We had seen a penguin from the dingy but they are quite rare (only 800 pairs) and we didn't see any in the water, however we caught a sea lion on camera just as we were about to give up due to the cold (another cloudy day, a shame after our glorious sunshine the first couple of days). And once again we saw 100 strong shoals of fish - beautiful.
The clouds were good for something - a gorgeous sunset reflecting off the cumulus above. The most beautiful in South America.
In the evening Hanzel
educated us on our cute friends the sea lions. We were shocked to hear that from the age of 5 the females give birth to a cub every year of their lives until they die aged 20 - they are constantly pregnant! The gestation period is 11 months, 2 for gamete maturation and 9 following that. The milk they produce for their young has a huge fat content - 45% (compared to humans at 0.7%, cows at 4% and blue whales at 68%!) This is to ensure their blubber grows to 2 inches thick, not only keeping them warm underwater but to conduct reverse osmosis to provide the fresh water supply that all marine mammals require. They are able to hold their breath for 20 minutes (to a depth of 150m) by first hyperventilating to oxygenate their myoglobin, and then exhaling to expel all air pockets and prevent "the bends." Astonishingly, a female sea lion can distinguish one of its offspring from 1000 other identical juveniles; through smell. Sea lions have 5000 smell sensors, compared to humans' 300. They are not as sensitive as dogs however, who have 12,000. The most sensitive sense of smell belongs to the land wolf,
who with 15,000 sensors can detect smell through one metre of solid ice, which no other animal can. As always, Hanzel's stories were filled with amusing analogies and actions, and he was endearing and funny as ever.
After dinner Hanzel told us he had a problem. We could not have anticipated what was to follow. His brother had been in a car accident on the mainland and was in intensive care; he had to prepare to leave. Our hearts went out to him and no-one knew what to say. We stayed up awaiting further news. An hour later he told us his brother had died, and our boat set sail to the only airport on the islands. Once again we were dumbstruck, but for some reason he was the one extending his apologies. He later appeared with his laptop, on which he had created a folder of photos for each passenger with snaps taken both of us posing but also unawares - some fantastic (and of course some non-flattering) moments he captured of Chris and I. To everyone's folder he also added a number of his own wildlife photos, which we won't attempt to claim as our own but
they are on facebook! Despite our protests he insisted on burning everyone a CD of the photos as he had promised a few days ago. We stayed up for a good few hours later than we could normally manage to keep him company. When he periodically left the room conversation turned to, "What if one of us had a medical emergency.. a heart attack? We would have to sail 3 hours to the airport, fly 2 hours to the mainland before finding a hospital?" Chris and I said nothing of the incident on Lake Titicaca but exchanged knowing glances. Once again, the beauty of our remoteness turned sour.
Chris's Corner Just as we had been about to give up on the snorkelling quest for sea lions or penguins, 2 sea lions saved our swim. By this point we had however taken our flippers off, so both jumped back in the surf, camera in tow, and kicked as hard as we could to keep up with these majestic powerful swimmers. Luckily, they were in the mood to show off, so hung around us! That is until an alpha male came over and barked us away... time for a swift
exit!
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