North Seymour Island

Our plane touched down at the tiny one gate airport on the tiny island of Baltra. Before we were off the tarmac Dennis had spotted a new bird, one more for his life time list. After clearing all the legalities of entering the Galapagos Islands we boarded a small bus and took a five minute ride to the pier. As we donned our life jackets to ride the panga (a big rubber raft that was always our ride on and off the yacht) we were greeted by our first sea lion and our first marine iguana. I was excited. As soon as we boarded the La Pinta we were sent upstairs to the main lounge for our first briefing. We were given all the rules and told we would be exploring North Seymour Island that afternoon. It would be a dry landing, meaning we would not need to step into the ocean before stepping up onto the rocks on shore. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch and a short rest period then we piled back into the pangas for our ride ashore.

“Wow! Look, look!” was about all I said for the next three hours. I had hoped to see a blue footed booby. I saw thousands of them. North Seymour is one of their major nesting areas and everywhere I looked there were boobies. They were dancing with one another in a courtship ritual or sitting on nests with their eggs or diving into the sea like torpedoes. It was just awesome







North Seymour is also a nesting area for the magnificent frigate birds. These birds are huge, with a wingspan of more than six feet. They look like small airplanes in flight. The males have a big balloon-like throat pouch that they inflate in order to impress the ladies. I can assure you that I was impressed with their beautiful magnificence.






The island was covered with many kinds of birds. It also had a large number of sea lions and lava lizards. You needed to watch where you stepped or you might step on one of the land iguanas munching on its lunch.




After North Seymour I could hardly wait for whatever wonders might lie in store for us the next day.