Friday, April 15th, 2022
Most of our group got up for a 6:00 AM dinghy ride to North Seymour Island. It was a dry landing and walk. Before leaving the yacht we saw a Galápagos shark swimming around!
North Seymour was a major nesting area for Blue-footed Boobies and Magnificent Frigatebirds. We saw some Blue-footed Boobies dancing in a circle. We did spot a few iguanas, both marine and land.
We also saw some sea lions still snoozing and relaxing.
There were swallow-tailed gulls also on the island.
As we walked we saw Magnificent Frigatebirds as well as the Blue-footed Boobies.
The Magnificent Frigatebird males have a red throat pouch that inflates. This is called a gular pouch that the male frigatebirds use to attract females. We saw many males trying to get the females attentions.
There were many juvenile Magnificent Frigatebirds around the area and on the nests.
The males and females frigates take turns on the nest. We observed more males sitting than females.
There were Blue-footed boobies and they had nests too. One way to tell the difference between a male and female is the color of their feet. A female has deeper blue hued feet. The females are also a little larger in size so they can carry more food. The male whistles and the female makes more of a honking/braying sound. We heard both as we walked around. The females have larger pupils and the males have more of pinpoint pupils.
The dinghy took us back to the Tip Top V for the last time.
After breakfast we packed up and headed for our dinghy ride to take us to the pier for our bus ride to the airport on Baltra Island. At the airport we checked in and before we went through security we said goodbye to our Naturalist and Galápagos guide Fernando.
Taking off from the airport in Baltra Island.
Our flight from Baltra to Quito had a stop in Guayaquil. Some passengers got off and others got on.
We got a good view of Quito as we were coming into land.
Patricia met us at the airport when we arrived. It was good to see a familiar face again. We headed to our hotel, Hosteria Rincon de Puembo and later had our farewell dinner with our group. We said our goodbyes and we have each other’s emails so we can keep in touch!
We set our alarms to get up a little after 2:00 AM because our flight was at 6:40 AM. Thank goodness Susie still had her phone on and saw that our flight was canceled. She let the rest of us know. We all were scurrying to rebook and figure out our flights. It became a restless night once we figured out our route home.
