Day 8 - Jul 31, 2018 Isla Seymour Norte, Galapagos Islands

Today is definitely one of the highlights of our Galapagos trip.  We went on a day trip to Isla Seymour Norte and walked around the island.  We were picked up in the morning from hotel and driven back to the north channel where we came from the airport.  Just as we reached the mountain top and started to descend, the sky just magically cleared up.  It changed from dreary misty foggy to blue sky and bright sunshine.  A dingy took our group to a bigger boat and we sailed for 45 mins to reach Isla Seymour Norte which is just north of Isla Baltra where the airport was located.  There was no formal jetty or wharf there at Seymour so we all had to scramble up the rocks on the shore.  The island is uninhabited and it's very flat.  There were thousands of sea birds flying over us and making their nests wherever they could find rooms on the trees, rocks, or just on the ground.  We saw blue-footed boobies and two kinds of fridgate birds.  The one that we were very interested in seeing is Magnificent Fridgate bird.  The males have this humongous bright red bulge on their necks.  To attract their mates, they would blow up their red bulge and shaking it back and forth, with their beaks making clapping noise!  We also saw big land iguana hiding under the giant cacti to cool down.  The scenery with the low vegetation and distant ocean and islets together with the blue sky was just totally awesome.

After we got back on the boat, they served us snacks (fresh pineapple, sandwiches) while we set sail to a nearby islet which is literally one big giant sandy beach.  The dingy took us to the beach where we met many sea lions both on the beach and in the water.  The white beach with the blue sky and the sunbathing sea lions altogether made a magical "Galapagos" moment!  Snorkeling was just OK as it was quite shallow in places.  We saw numerous huge parrot fish.  The playful sea lions also tried to hazzle us.

Sandy islet where we went snorkeling

Once back on board, they served us 3-course lunch while sailing back to the Baltra Channel.  The whole trip was very professionally done and the food was tasty, a far cry from our packaged dinner.  We were so happy we did this add-on island hopping tour.