At the end of Jorge’s talk, we all signed up for our first afternoon excursion. We signed up for the high intensity walk around North Seymour island. It’s survival of the fittest just to get on the Zodiac! First come, first served; old people do well at pushing – let me tell you! But all 4 of us managed to get on the first zodiac with Manuel, who is really great. Off we motor to the island – a very smooth crossing – but boy is it hot! And there’s no shade – anywhere!! Took only a few minutes and we were greeted by sea lions on the rocks and a male sea lion who was really angry and screaming at us! Welcome to the Galapagos.
We scrambled out of the zodiac and up the rocks to the path, where we began to wind our way along the shore. Low scrub and short brambly bushes and trees cover the interior. Rocky inclines lead to the shoreline. Colors are extremely vivid – blues, greens and browns. Manuel told us that with the rain last week, the vegetation is now green – it was brown and gray before that. Good timing on our part (like we had anything to do with it!) We started down a rocky path on the shore, picking our way along the sea lions and lizards. Rules are to stay in between the guide posts that mark the trail to avoid hurting possible egg lairs (of course some folks listened, some did not!) and stay together. Ok – groups of 16 sticking together? Actually, it worked pretty well – almost too well. There are always some people who have no concept of space and/or their surroundings. So picture taking – even in the “wilderness” – can be a challenge. You get good at shooting over people’s shoulders and between their legs!
Here’s where I will try not to bore everyone to death with the wildlife stories – needless to say – there’s WILDLIFE! Amazing – and of course the objective of the trip, but still! The preface to the ensuing lists of sights, sounds and senses, is that none of these animals are afraid of humans – so they pose quite nicely. And of course you can get close up. The photos – we hope – will be fabulous – but eh experience of just being there, of course, trumps it all!
So – back to North Seymour – one-half of the walk is along the beach – sea lions, black iguanas, hiding under business to keep cool (coz remember – it’s HOT HOT HOT!). Frigate birds all over – Grand Frigates, Magnificent Frigates – the difference? Ahh, hard to really remember (that’s another preface here – we are so overwhelmed with information – we’ll never get it all right – so you’ll probably end up with more misinformation than not!!!). With Frigates, anyway, one of the differences is the sound they make – one of them makes a sound like a drum or basketball dribbling, the other one makes some other sound – and darned if we can remember which is what! One species (the Grand Frigate?) has a red ring around her eyes. The male Frigate has a red “balloon” type pouch on it’s next that he blows up to indicate he’s ready to mate. He will sit on a perch until a female comes to join him. There were many red breasted/necked Frigates on our walk. The rain must be working!!!
As we rounded the side of the island and began our inland trek, we began to see many more blue footed boobies – along with their young. The babies are furry, fuzzy little adorable things. Also saw a grown iguana climbing up on a tree/bush. Manuel said this was most unusual for a full grown iguana to climb – he/she/just have been looking or had seen some food. Many, many, many more pictures of the BFB’s (blue footed boobies) later, we founded the corner to the zodiac landing area.
As we were getting ready to don our life jackets and climb down the steep hill to the zodiac, the male sea lion that was angry before charged us. The guides used the life jacket bag to block it and try to scare it back away. It made these incredible screaming noises as it tried to protect a baby from what he perceived as a threat – us. Pretty scary – but – hey – it’s nature and that’s what we’re here for (of course – I’m just along for this ride – not my 1st choice of a trip – so I stayed very safely tucked away in my backpack while Cathy and Ed dealt with the darn screaming sea lion!).
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