Galapagos - North Seymour and Chinaman Hat Island

December 27, 2010

Galapagos - North Seymour and Chinaman Hat Island

Pic of Chinaman Hat Island

This is now at the halfway point of the cruise, on the fifth day. The previous day, we sadly had to say goodbye to some passengers who we had gotten to know well, but our group of four that stayed welcomed a new and interesting group. We visited North Seymour Island in the morning. We saw many, many birds, one of which was a species called frigids. The males had a red pouch that they inflated to call attention to themselves to attract female birds. They were beautiful and a few even came along back with us, hanging out at the top of our boat and hovering in the wind tunnel our boat created for an "easy ride" for the birds.

In the afternoon, we visited Chinaman Hat Island, so called because it looks like a Chinaman's Hat. We saw Galapagos Penguins, more sea lions, more iguanas, more crabs and beautiful landscapes and beaches. A highlight of this day was seeing a giant manta ray while shuttling onto one of the islands in the small dinghy boats. The ray was as big as our boat! :) What an unbelievable place (yep, I'm still saying it! ;)

Enjoy more pictures from this day on my website at www.zanything.net

Giant Manta Ray as big as our 8-person dinghy boat!