...in Galápagos

North Seymour / Santiago (James)

The land tour was on North Seymour Island, which was a dry landing where you could step out on some makeshift rock steps. We landed at approximately 4:30 pm, and had to be off the island by 6:00 pm due to park regulations. The minute you landed you knew this was not going to be enough time. In a desert-like setting, Blue-footed boobies were everywhere. The trail led you through nesting booby habitats (many with chicks, and performing their comical "dances"), through Frigate bird nesting grounds, passing many sea lions sunning themselves along the way.

There is no exaggeration when you read how approachable the wildlife is here. You were immediately in wildlife overload! The boobies almost walk up to you with pride, asking you to see the latest nest creation they just made, which was barely a small dent in the sand surrounded by guano. It felt like a neighbor inviting you in for coffee and a chat. It was simply amazing. Along the path, the naturalist would stop and key you in on certain nesting characteristics or aspects of the birds and landscape there. The Frigate birds were a bit farther off the trail, with the male birds having inflated red pouches to show what studs they were. This was a situation when a longer lens helped, though 400 mm was still not enough to get full frame shots.

The path back towards the boat ran along the shoreline where many sea lions were resting on the rocks. Where else on earth can you go up and sit next to wild animals like this, and even have them walk (i.e. waddle) up to you and give you a kiss? Just incredible! This was an amazing first dose of the Galápagos. The experience was priceless, but you yearned for more time to shoot.

The boat moved to Rabida (Jervis) and Santiago (James) Island for the next day's activities. A land tour was made in the morning on Rabida, known for its magnificent red sand beach and lagoon known to attract flamingos. While we saw one sea lion and some pelicans, there were no flamingos. The story we heard was that they used to breed here, until a bull sea lion group decided they wanted this lagoon.

Another dive was made later in the morning. Here we saw many yellow-tailed surgeonfish and blue-chin parrotfish. The dive was followed by a land tour of Santiago (James) in the afternoon. A schedule had to be maintained today as the boat needed to depart for Darwin Island by 4:00 pm for the overnight voyage. James Island was filled with more encounters with sea lions, marine iguanas, sally-light foot crabs, Galápagos Hawks, sea turtles, and various other shorebirds. The light tended to be a bit harsh as we had mostly clear, sunny skies, and were forced to shoot mid-day due to the boat departure time and the dive taking place in the morning.