Lots of Boobies!

In the morning after breakfast we took the Panga (Rubber-ducky inflated boat) to another island which was very rocky and barren looking with lots of dead looking vegetation. As we were approaching the landing spot there was a bull sea lion swimming around in the water calling to warn off other males as this was his territory. Juan Carlos called back a few times which made him a bit mad so we had to scramble quickly out of the boat up onto the rocks.

There was a pair of Swallow-tails Gulls nesting close by. They are the worlds only nocturnal feeding gulls and were quite pretty for seagulls with red markings around their eyes.
Lots of sea lions close to the water and we had to step carefully around a suckling newborn and it’s mother lying on the path. The pathway was marked with white posts and we had to stay within them as there were lots of little Lava Lizards which nested in the sandy areas and might have been stepped on!

Walking further inland we saw nesting Frigate Birds which were jet-black apart from a bright red throat sack on the males which they inflated in order to attract females during breeding season. Takes hours and a lot of energy to inflate so they don’t eat for days when they do it. Basically sit there in the nest they build waiting for “the ladies” to fly over and admire their big red sack. They make some weird gutteral noises with it as well which our guide said was used for the pterodactyl calls in one of the Jurassic Park movies which is quite fitting because there is a prehistoric look about them.



After the Frigate birds we came to some nesting Blue-footed Boobies which were very funny looking birds. The adults are mostly white with bright blue feet. They are named Boobies from “Bobo" for clown as they are not very graceful walking on land and do a funny mating dance lifting their feet side to side and bowing to each other while whistling. Incredibly good divers while fishing though. Glide on the breeze over the water and just fold in the wings and shoot into the water like an arrow. We came across a juvenile Boobie and the guide tossed a small stick to him and he walked around flipping it in his beak, getting practice for when he would need to do it with fish.

After lunch we snorkelled off the Panga. Saw a sea lion zip past and some large white-tailed reef sharks and a squadron (What’s the collective noun for rays?) of maybe 20 eagle rays. Took a disposable underwater camera which is yet to be developed (film! What‘s that?) but Andy had a proper camera which was waterproof and got some good pics.


In the afternoon we went to another island which was inhabited by Land Iguanas. Most of the Iguanas in Galapagos are marine but these ones have evolved from the marine iguanas to now live solely on land. They live in groups with a dominant male and spend all day sitting under a cactus tree waiting for the fruit to fall. As a result the cactus on the island has become very tree-like with massive trunks.
Did a loop walk around the island which looked so alien with the green cactus trees, red saltbush and grey gravel earth.

During the night we had a long cruise to the island of Española which was quite rough and made a few people sea sick.