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North Seymour and Sombrero/Chino Hat Islands

We got our wake up bell at 6:00 AM with our first departure in the dingy or panga at 6:30 AM.  Peter kept saying he was on vacation, so what was all this schedule about!  But, the 6.30 landing was well worth it!!!

We took the dingy and had a "dry" landing on North Seymour Island.  Like most of the islands, North Seymour is a volcanic island that was raised up from the ocean floor.  You could see the sea coral from the sea bottom that now made up most of the island.  

Each island is known for some specific environment or species.  North Seymour is known for it Frigate bird breeding area, blue footed boobies, sea lions, marine and land iguanas and nocturnal sea gulls.  The island was rather barren with volcanic rock, a little sand and small scrub brush bushes and trees.  We stepped right into an area inhabitated by sea lions.  This became a common occurance on many of the islands.  But, this being our first, was pretty special.  The sea lions were not afraid of you 'cuz they have no natural enemies.  There were a lot of females with pups of all ages.  The females are rather friendly so you can get within 3-6 feet of them.  You have to be respectful of their space and make sure you don't touch them.  We watched many females nursing their little ones - WOW!  You do have to be careful of the bulls and keep a lot of distance.  They will protect their females and with them being 5-800 pounds, you don't want to make one of them mad.

As we proceeded around the island, we saw some birds flying with a bright red inflated chest.  They were quite a sight!  It was mating season and we found they were the male Great and Magnificent Frigate birds.  They inflate this sack on their chest, flap their wings and make a clicking sound with their beaks to attract the females.  It takes them 20 minutes to inflate or deflate their sack.  It is a beautiful sight!  They nest on top of the scrub bushes with several sharing the same bush.  We watched in awe as they strutted and performed for the females.  When a female chose a male, she would come up next to him and put a wing around him!  Quite touching!  In the bushes, there were lots of nests and lots of new chicks.

We also saw the nocturnal sea gulls.  They are mostly white and have a red ring around their eyes to make it easier to see and be seen by their babies at night.  Instead of a black spot on their beak where the babies peck when they want food, they have a white spot.  These are just a few adaptations made by one species to live in this environment.  These birds used to fly close to the boat and fish at night.

We also saw many blue footed boobies.  What a spectacular bird with bright blue feet and beaks.  One just sat there posing a couple of feet from us as we took photos.

This was our first real Galapagos island experience and we saw several things that others rarely see!  After our hike, we went back to the boat for breakfast, a short sail to a snorkeling area and then off to our next island -  Sombrero/Chino Hat. 

While the boat was fueling up in Baltra, we stopped at a naval beach for a snorkel.  Unfortunately, the visibility was not very good, but we did see a small ray, cow fish, and sea lions.  Pelicans, of course, were all over the place, plus a Galapagos hawk.  On the beach, there was a small shelter and a few sea lions.  Another group was sitting under the shelter, when this bull sea lion came stalking around the back of the shelter.  Guess this is his normal place to lie, so he slinked up and then came bounding into the area they were, barred his teeth and yelled getting them to move very quickly.  Then he went into a little section in the back and laid down to sleep.  Quite a show!

After we were fueled, we cruised for 3 hours to our next spot - Sombrero/Chino Hat Island.  The sun came out and the area lit up with small, beautiful white sand beaches in the middle of black volcanic rock and a Carribean blue sea.  WOW!  On this island, we went for another snorkel before we toured the island.  The small beach was filled with sea lions and was being patrolled by the bull.  As long as we kept our distance from the bull, we were allowed to snorkel with the female and baby sea lions.  It was a riot!  The babies and females came out to play - racing towards us then turning somersaults and flips right before they got to us.  One was even throwing a rock and stick for us.  The sea lions played and played with us.  When it was time to go on our hike, they followed us out of the water and onto the beach and went to check out our stuff.  They wanted us to come back and play!  This was a wonderful experience that we were able to experience off and on the next few days.  I will never look at sea lions quite the same way again.  What personalities!

We then toured the island which really showed the volcanic activity of the area.  It got its name "Sombrero" from the crater in the center that looked like a sombrero hat.  There was not much wild life here except for the sea lions and the land and marine iguanas.  This island showed us a lot about the geology of the area.  Still very interesting!

On our way back to the boat in our dingy, we went in search of the Galapagos penguins.  There are only around 800 of them left in the islands - and since they are only found here - left in the world.  They are rather small - 10-18" tall - but waddle and swim around just like a regular polar penguin.  We were successful and found one on top of a lava rock.  We got right up to the rock to take pictures.  While we were there, 2 more climbed up.  Once again, we saw something many visitors never see!  We never got an opportunity to swim with them, but we hear that that is quite an experience.  They like to come up to your mask and look you right in the eyes!  It is so amazing to be able to be so close to the wildlife!

Back to the boat for our briefing on the next day, dinner, cruising and bed.  We were on a pretty strict schedule on this trip!  By the way, while sailing between islands, we sometimes saw huge manta rays and sea lions jumping out of the water.

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