After our short navigation to North Seymour Island yesterday evening, we were up early and on to our landing by 6 A.M. We had only about 2 hours for this landing as this was the day we flew back to Guayaquil, our last day in the Galapagos!
The path here follows along the beach then turns inland where there was an abundance of boobies and frigate-birds.
The males force air into this gular (neck) sac during a courtship display. It can take as long as 20 minutes to fully inflate. I think this guy has really been working at it!
And, yes, they can fly with it! What better way to attract a female than flying around with this big red ballon under your throat!
This land iguana blends right in with the rocks and the cactus. Handsome devil!
In another example of courtship display, the blue footed boobies use exaggerated foot raising and flaunting of their webs, raising them up and out. In the first image he almost looks like he has arms folded behind his back like an ice skater!
So, just like that, our trip is over. We shuttled back to the Samba to pack all our gear and made our way to the harbor at Baltra so we could catch our flight back to Guayaquil.
But fear not, over the next few days I will post some other interesting images, our crew on the Samba, the whole of our crew photographing and one final trip map. Also some of the videos as I get them processed and edited. Stay tuned!