A beautiful breezy, sunny morning greeted us on the National Geographic Sea Lion. Our yoga mats tried to blow off the sun deck during our stretching class, but we persevered. An “early bird cruise” set off before breakfast and cruised towards guano covered Bona Island.
Birds, birds, and more birds. The sky overhead was full of boobies and magnificent frigate birds as we approached the volcanic Bona Island. Our naturalist explained that at this time the blue footed boobies’ feet are not very blue in color. This happens during the mating season to attract a partner. We also learned that blue footed boobies are much whiter in their throat area than the brown footed boobies. The name boobies, “bobo” in Spanish, means dumb. The fishermen’s tale is that the boobies would come right up to their boats and they would grab them and eat them!
Brown pelicans floated in the water and soared overhead. They fish by diving from as high as 30 feet and can hold up to 10 liters of water in their pouches. Frigate birds are also plunge divers. They can dive from as high as 300 feet! We saw a few of these birds with their bright red gular pouches inflated sitting in the trees. A fluffy white chick was spotted next to two female frigate birds. Chicks stay with their mothers for up to 14 months.
Our afternoon outing took us to Iguana Island, a wildlife refuge. Our expedition landing crafts arrived on the gorgeous, white sandy beach and we were happy to see many hermit crabs scurrying around. We put on our snorkel gear and got into the warm Pacific Ocean. We watched sergeant major fish, guineafowl puffer fish and bicolar parrot fish swimming about. Others hiked across the small island finding the black iguana.
We were back onboard just in time to see the sun sinking below the horizon.
