The first full day of our expedition took place on North Seymour Island, a seabird sanctuary where several species of birds share nesting territories without competition. Some of the birds nest in trees, and others nest on the ground or on naked rocks. This is the perfect place to take close photos of these amazing animals, including blue-footed boobies, frigatebirds, and swallow-tailed gulls. Several land species live in the same area, like land iguanas and the lava lizards that are endemic to the islands. During their 63 years of management, the National Park has done important work to preserve this pristine ecosystem.
After lunch, we navigated to the next destination, Rabida Island, where we enjoyed the first snorkeling of our trip. As guests explored the underwater reef by the cliff, they observed several schools of fish, a huge marble ray, and a big whitetip reef shark. A male Galapagos sea lion patrolled his territory.
After the snorkeling outing, we went on board for a quick change and returned to the red beach. We walked around the brackish lagoon and spotted four flamingos incubating eggs. This is very exciting because it is the first time in the last 20 years that we saw flamingos nesting on this island again. The day ended with a beautiful walk on the beach while the sun set and the moon rose over the fire island of Rabida!
