Santa Cruz Island highlands & North Seymour
It was dark outside when I woke up. However, by the time I made the ship-wide wake-up call, the light was enough to see every detail of Academy Bay, the vessels anchored there, and the outline of Puerto Ayora. It is a vibrant town these days, with boats in-bound and out-bound at almost every hour of the day and night.
Driving up into the green highlands, we looked eagerly for signs that the rains had started. After all, the clouds hanging around the upper levels surely had us believing it must be wet. The farmers of Santa Cruz and the other inhabited islands (4 in total), have all been desperate for the rains to start, as it has been dry, dry, dry for too long, in their opinion. But it was not to be. Only drizzles had fallen in the highlands in the last few days.
However, our native and endemic inhabitants have suffered through similar if not worse droughts in their millennia of experience here, and will survive. It’s just the new, introduced species that are having it rough. We visited with the largest and most famous of the Galápagos fauna in the morning: the Galápagos giant tortoises. Munching their way through clumps of grass, sleeping under a tree or in a mud pool, they know how to take life easy, not stressing over the small stuff.
In the afternoon on North Seymour Island, we saw a variety of wildlife: magnificent and great frigatebirds with a few males showing extended red pouches; blue-footed boobies courting; sea lions; and the biggest surprise were the numerous land iguanas wandering the beaches along with marine iguana females looking for nesting sites. The season has begun!
It was dark outside when I woke up. However, by the time I made the ship-wide wake-up call, the light was enough to see every detail of Academy Bay, the vessels anchored there, and the outline of Puerto Ayora. It is a vibrant town these days, with boats in-bound and out-bound at almost every hour of the day and night.
Driving up into the green highlands, we looked eagerly for signs that the rains had started. After all, the clouds hanging around the upper levels surely had us believing it must be wet. The farmers of Santa Cruz and the other inhabited islands (4 in total), have all been desperate for the rains to start, as it has been dry, dry, dry for too long, in their opinion. But it was not to be. Only drizzles had fallen in the highlands in the last few days.
However, our native and endemic inhabitants have suffered through similar if not worse droughts in their millennia of experience here, and will survive. It’s just the new, introduced species that are having it rough. We visited with the largest and most famous of the Galápagos fauna in the morning: the Galápagos giant tortoises. Munching their way through clumps of grass, sleeping under a tree or in a mud pool, they know how to take life easy, not stressing over the small stuff.
In the afternoon on North Seymour Island, we saw a variety of wildlife: magnificent and great frigatebirds with a few males showing extended red pouches; blue-footed boobies courting; sea lions; and the biggest surprise were the numerous land iguanas wandering the beaches along with marine iguana females looking for nesting sites. The season has begun!
