One of the last experiences we took while staying in the Galápagos Islands was a North Seymour Island tour. This bird-filled island is located just north of Isla Baltra which is where the airport is. Because of its closer proximity, we were able to leave at 8am instead of 6am like our previous tour. This was much appreciated. 😃
As with many things on the Galapagos, it required a bus ride to the other side of Santa Cruz island, boarding a dinghy to be taken to the sailboat, the inevitable spotting of sharks in the shallower water, and seeing seals lounging on the buoys. We had been booked by our Airbnb host with the same company we used before, so we boarded the familiar sailboat and we were on our way.
While we were sailing to our first stop, we met our new naturalist guide. In our conversation, Isaac excitedly kept interrupting and telling her facts that he had learned about the Galapagos. She said that he was like a little nature guide, and all throughout the tour she had him explain or answer questions about the flora and fauna. It was great that she included him in the tour, and he was able to learn even more from her!
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Las Bachas Beach
Our first stop on the North Seymour Island tour took us to a very beautiful beach called Playa Las Bachas off the coast of the island of Santa Cruz. This is the island where we were staying, but this beach is on the opposite side and only accessible by boat. We walked down the beach with our guide while she pointed out different ecological facts. We learned that the majority of the sand we were walking on was actually parrotfish poop! 😳
Besides the education component, we of course looked for animals. We searched for turtles off the coastline and flamingos in the lagoons. We didn’t spot any flamingos but did see some turtles, crabs, pelicans flying overhead and the famous blue footed boobies. In addition to this, we could see tracks of where the sea turtles came up on land to lay their eggs.
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Snorkeling on the North Seymour Tour
The next part of the adventure took us snorkeling. When we went to Bartolome previously, the snorkeling was absolutely incredible. So much so that we got the kids excited enough to give it a shot this time. (Read about our day trip to Bartolome here.)
Unfortunately, where we snorkeled off the coast of North Seymour wasn’t ideal for children. It was choppy water. Levi lasted maybe 2 minutes. Those two minutes were incredible but it may have scared him too much to want to try again for a little while. (Please note, he was fine, but got a little panicked when the water got in his breathing tube and his mask slipped off.)
Isaac did very well snorkeling for a little while. Then, when Mike left him with me so he could go try and get Levi back in the water, something happened and he wanted to get out of the water. I am not too strong of a swimmer, so to lift him up and calm him down while swimming wasn’t going to happen. He just got out after that and so did I.
What did we learn? Don’t go snorkeling when it’s wavy and it is your kids 2nd time snorkeling ever! 🙄
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North Seymour Island – The Main Attraction
The last, and most memorable, stop was on North Seymour Island. Remember the choppy waters? Well, the coastline is rocky here. No sand to be seen. I guess it hasn’t been deemed necessary to build a dock here either. So, our boat driver times the waves to ensure the front of our dinghy elevates enough to slide on top of a relatively flat rock on the shore. He then keeps the motor going so the dinghy doesn’t rock backwards off of the perch.
In the meantime, our guide does all she can to have us not think about how precarious this position is. She grabs each person’s hand as they stumble to the front of the boat and time their jump onto the rocky shore correctly. Easy peasy.
(I’ll intentionally not share the full tale of the woman who didn’t time her jump back onto the dinghy correctly. Use your imagination. Don’t worry, she didn’t get hurt!)
Landscape of North Seymour Island
As soon as you step onto North Seymour Island, it feels as if you’ve entered a different world. It is a desert-like island with minimal vegetation except some short bushes and small barren trees. A mix of rock and sand make up the elevated terrain. The light somehow appears different on this landscape… a reddish brown that is accentuated by the non-stop screeches of the native birds. It is eerie and beautiful at the same time. It feels ancient and untouched. The landscape makes it very easy to see the birds and their nesting places.
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Frigates
North Seymour island is where the remarkable frigate birds mate and nest. Frigates are the large black birds that have inflatable red chests. The males are the only ones that have the red chests and they balloon out only when they are searching for a mate. You can see frigates on other islands flying around, but we never saw them land anywhere else. This was the only place.
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Blue Footed Boobies
Other birds that use the island for nesting are the blue footed boobies. We learned that they get their foot color from the carotenoid pigments obtained from the fresh fish they eat. Because of this, the young birds don’t have blue feet.
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Land Iguanas
We also were able to see the land iguanas that live on this island. They are different from the marine iguanas in many ways. One is the coloring, but also they do not like to be near each other unlike the marine iguanas which are commonly hanging out in groups and sharing body warmth. After becoming used to only seeing the marine iguanas on the ground, it was interesting to catch some of the land iguanas climbing the trees and shrubs during the North Seymour Island tour.
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Summary of North Seymour Island
Overall the North Seymour Island tour was incredible and I would highly recommend it. It is hard to even compare it to Bartolome. How can you compare frigates to penguins, stunning landscapes you have never seen and likely will never see anywhere else? I could, but it wouldn’t feel right. I guess you will just have to go and decide how to compare them yourself!
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