What a magical day we had today! We saw a Bryde’s whale and a pod of common dolphins even before we started with our daily activities. The snorkeling was fabulous. We swam with green sea turtles, Galapagos penguins, flightless cormorants, lots of different fish — even marine iguanas were in the water with us. The land was abundant too; there were thousands of marine iguanas all over the area we explored today. Galapagos sea lions looked like they were posing for us. The Galapagos hawk was perched on one of the mangroves in the zone, probably looking for its next prey. The whole day was a blessing from nature.
5/6/2025
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National Geographic Islander II
North Seymour and Rabida Islands
At 6:30 in the morning, some guests joined us for an expedition on North Seymour Island, which is slowly losing its green color due to the beginning of the dry season. It is a perfect time of year to see blue-footed booby couples starting to reproduce with the typical courtship displays and a good number of male frigatebirds with their red gular sack inflated. We encountered a good number of healthy land iguanas since they still have a lot of food, thanks to the previous wet season. While navigating to Rabida Island, bottlenose dolphins escorted National Geographic Islander II for at least 45 minutes, and guests had an excellent time watching them. In the afternoon, we snorkeled from the beach with colorful fish and young, playful sea lions who put on a great show. At the end of the day some guests took a walk on the red colored sand and watched American flamingos behind the dune at a saltwater lagoon. Others went kayaking along the coast full of land and sea birds.
