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Friday, March 30th - Santa Cruz Island |
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Galapagos Islands March 23rd To April 1, 2007 |
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Unlike our lack of success yesterday with seeing any whales, we came out onto deck this morning to find the Evolution in the midst of a pod of dolphins. And unlike earlier this week when we saw the common dolphins, this time we saw bottlenose dolphins playing in the wake of the boat. As this was our last full day on the Evolution, it seemed to be an appropriate farewell to us!
We started the morning on North Seymour Island, a small flat island that was next to Baltra Island. Our first excursion took us for a walk on the island where we got our last visit to see the blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, and land iguanas.
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Before we even started the hike, though, Mother Nature put on a fascinating show for us. Right underneath where we were standing, we saw several juvenile sea lions playing with a fish they had caught. The fish’s blood, however, attracted some undesired attention and soon there were several white-tipped reef sharks and a hammerhead shark hunting in the waters. They made several runs at the sea lions, but the sea lions made quick dashes into shallow areas where the sharks couldn’t follow. We then saw the playful nature of the sea lions coming out as they swam after the reef sharks (which were only slightly larger than the sea lions) and grabbed the sharks’ tails! |
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We took our last hike of the cruise through across the island. It proved to be a great opportunity to see the blue-footed boobies up close. Possibly the most amusing thing we saw was one female lording over two males, choosing which one she wanted to mate with. Each male would bring in little gifts for her to prove that he would really love her for ever and ever (well, that’s what it looked like!). Watching them do their mating dance was absolutely adorable! |
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We kept hiking through the island, seeing some incredible land iguanas. Because they are easy targets for wild dogs, the population had been shrinking, but the Ecuadorians have done a great job of eradicating the feral dog population to protect the iguanas. It may seem a bit heartless, but it is something that is truly necessary to protect the native species. |
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We made our way back to the boat to make a quick change into our wet suits and snorkeling gear for one last dive into the Pacific. At first, it seemed questionable as to whether we would be able to go. Alex and Boli vetoed our first diving spot because it was where we had seen the hammerhead and reef sharks hunting - we weren’t too disappointed by that choice! Then, we ventured around the end of the island for a second spot, but the waves were too large. After another five or ten minutes, we finally found a third spot that didn’t have waves big enough to dash us into the rocks! It was definitely a great last dive! We saw our normal wide array of beautiful tropical fish (along with a couple of sharks nonchalantly swimming the other way). |
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Making their way through the mangrove swamp. |
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One of the many pelicans inhabiting the mangrove swamp. |
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How we made it through the swamp without disturbing the animals. |
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Alex our naturalist scaling a tree to |
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One of the MANY sea turtles feeding in the swamp. |
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Part of the school of golden rays we saw. |
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Everyone returned to the Evolution around 5:00. Apparently, the wacky females in our family decided that they needed to race their panga back to the ship - Victoria and I could hear them about a mile across the waters so we knew when they were approaching! Once onboard, everyone was regaling with stories of all they had seen and of Alex almost falling into the water as he tried to climb up into a tree!
Dinner was delicious, but a bit somber because we all knew that after we finished eating, we’d be returning to our cabin to pack up to disembark tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Farewell to the Galapagos Islands. |
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We all had our own highlight. For me, it was as I was swimming over a large rock formation only to come across a sting ray that was about five or six feet across (Boli said it was the largest of that species he had ever seen). For Kathie, Kristen, and Sharon, it was playing with several juvenile sea lions in the water. The three of them could be heard laughing and giggling from 100 yards away as they and the sea lion pups were swimming circles around each other, much like they would with our dogs at home! When it was finally time to get out of the water, our bodies were quite ready to, but I don’t think the rest of us wanted to since we knew this would be our last opportunity to snorkel like this!
That afternoon, Victoria and I enjoyed another quiet afternoon on the Evolution while everyone else went on an excursion to Black Turtle Cove on the island of Santa Cruz. The neat thing on this island was the beautiful mangrove swamp (see pictures below) where Kathie, Kristen, Sharon, and the others could look for rays, sea turtles, and an array of seabirds. For this entire excursion, though, they had to stay in the boat without using the motors until they had returned to open water. |
