Sunday was a sensational day in the Galapagos. We had the chance to visit two islands of this magical archipelago. The first was North Seymour, a seabird paradise, so after breakfast we put on our life jackets and off we went by Zodiac. We landed in the northern side, ready to do a loop around this wonderful uplifted island, and right at the beginning, we encountered our first blue-footed boobies and Galapagos sea lions. The chances that we had here to photograph wildlife were incredible. Blue-footed booby chicks in all their fluffy stages, male frigatebirds with their gular pouch puffed up to attract a mate, both of these species taking care of and feeding their chicks, all unbothered by our presence. Then land iguanas, with their fierce look, walked next to us without a care in the world. After a couple of hours, we were back on the ship, full of excitement from the amazing experience we had and from what was going to come next. We tried on the snorkel gear and headed for lunch while we navigated to the next island in our itinerary.
Rabida, the red island was our next stop. Rabida´s beach offered us the chance to practice our snorkeling skills. A group of us headed there, while more experienced snorkelers went straight to deep water. As we entered the water, parrotfish, surgeonfish, puffers, wrasses, sea lions, sharks and sea turtles crossed our way!
The late afternoon was still full of activities, a hike in Rabida´s cliffs identifying the famous Darwin´s finches or a walk along the red sandy beach photographing sea lions and flamingos in the sunset.
Back on board, we enjoyed the evening in the lounge, learning more from our naturalist in our daily recap sessions and about tomorrow’s activities from our expedition leader Paula. We can´t wait to see what tomorrow will bring.
