North Seymour & Bachas Beach

Another early bus ride to Itabaca Channel today, this time to catch a boat to North Seymour. We were picked up by the day's naturalist guide, Luis, and found that the tour was us and a group of students and their professor from Florida Tech. They were in the Galapagos for an ecology course. It's only about 45 minutes from Baltra and is adjacent to Mosquera. North Seymour is a nesting site for frigate birds (magnificent and great) and blue footed boobies. Even before we landed we were treated to seeing a frigate bird with its big, red neck balloon inflated. On shore we immediately found ourselves face to face with a frigate bird nest with white floofballs starting at us. Nests like these were everywhere. Frigate birds nest in trees (a word which on North Seymour means a scrubby tangle roughly 2-3 feet from the ground) while while boobies nest in a shallow depression on the ground - this is how we were told to distinguish which floof we were looking at. 

The first part of the hike was mostly frigate bird nests balanced in palo santo trees and collections of males showing off their neck balloons. We observed a few smacking their balloons with their beaks making a sound like a kick ball bounced on a gym floor. The trail wound back to the coast where the blue footed boobies were nesting. Most of the chicks we saw were almost the size of their parents, but still covered in white fuzz. We saw a few that were quite recently hatched and at least one pair still tending an egg.

Most fun fact about the boobie feet: the more teal, the more desirable. Older males may take a year off from mating to replenish their carotenoids and restore their feet to a more competitive hue. 

North Seymour is also home to a large population of land iguanas. We saw several of these lounging on the rocks and a couple enjoying a meal of prickly pear. We also saw a couple of baby iguanas which we recognized thanks to our trip around Cerro Dragon with Roberto. 

Back on the boat we had a quick turn around to prepare to snorkel. This side of the island has cliffs rising straight out of the water. Beneath the surface it is a steep jumble of rocks going down 20 to 30 feet to a sandy sea floor. The usual suspect fishes were all here along with several that we had not seen before. We saw both the trumpet and coronet fish. There was a fine spotted moray eel slithering between rocky hiding spots. We spotted a huge and remarkably beautiful blunthead triggerfish that we have never seen before. It was easily 2 feet long, striped lavender and electric blue, and eating pencil urchins. This also turned out to be the sharkiest snorkel of the trip. We saw no fewer than 6 individual white tips resting and swimming along the base of the rocks.

After our shark-tastic snorkel, we landed at Bacha Beach. This is another picture postcard beach with perfect powdery sand bracketed by basalt and mangroves. There was a lagoon behind the beach with a solitary flamingo and a couple of whimbrels. We walked up and down the sugar-white sand watching the pelicans and brown noddies. The basalt outcroppings were generously covered with Sally Lightfoot crabs. There were a few marine iguanas around and a sea lion playing in the waves. This is another of what our guides refer to as an "organic beach". This is composed entirely of powdered coral, bones, and shells. Due to its composition it doesn't hold heat making it much more comfortable for walking or lounging.

Back in Puerto Ayora we made our way to Chocolapagos, an artisanal chocolatier. The place smelled like heaven and we found a few of the college students from our tour there as well. Many treats were had and many more purchased for the road home.

Ecuadorian chocolate represents our 3 largest expense on this trip. Seriously, we only spent more on the island visits and tips for our guides and boat crews. Worth every penny!