Since our cabins often get quite stuffy over the course of the night, a couple of passengers had started to spend the nights sleeping on the breezy sun deck. Last night, a record number of five of us set up camp (more than half of the passengers!). I lasted until 5 AM when the mosquitos caused me to retreat until the sun rose an hour later.
Back on the sun deck, I was reading when one of the crew came to say there were sharks circling the boat! Sure enough, several black tipped sharks were swimming silently just under the surface, searching for their breakfast. When we didn't see any sharks snorkeling yesterday, Alfonso had promised we'd see them today. I didn't know how he could make such a promise, but lo and behold, he was right!
It wasn't too hot for our ninety minute shore excursion, but there were plenty of sand flies to keep us company. Seymour Island is home to the #2 bird colony on the Galapagos (Espanola is #1) and we were able to see many male frigates with their red pouches inflated. It takes about twenty minutes to inflate their pouches and six hours to deflate. The males will leave their pouches inflated for about six hours at a time over the course of six months every two years to show females they are ready to mate. Females are able to mate year round, so there is always a new crop of males looking for a female.
Several males will sit together in the trees with their inflated pouches. A female will fly over and sit next to the male with the most appealing--usually the biggest--pouch. If there is only one frigate with an inflated pouch, she will not go to him regardless of the size of his pouch. You can often spot a male sitting alone practicing different poses that best show off his pouch.
Next she will check out his nest to make sure it is up to her standards. If she doesn't approve, she'll fly off. If she likes what she sees, she will stay put, the pair will touch chests, and the male will put his wing around her. This tells all the other frigates that these two are off the market.
The male will make his calling sound (Magnificent Frigates make a machine gun rat-a-tat-tat call and Minor Frigates make a turkey call) to the female and nuzzle his neck against her. He's ready but must wait until she is also ready. If he is too eager, she'll fly off and he'll have to start all over again!
Snorkeling was fantastic as always. We saw both sea lions and fur seals in the water. The fur seals were noticeably different in their size and shape.
No hammerhead sharks again today, but I did see about three white tipped reef sharks. They were beautiful creatures. They were about 1.5-2 meters long and swam powerfully but with grace. I can't imagine when I'll next be swimming in the ocean and yell "Shark!" with excitement instead of fear!
We stopped to fill up on gas for the next few days. The water again was that perfect green foam color, so we hoped to indulge in our favorite past time: jumping off the ship. We were dissuaded when we were told that, due to the proximity of the Ecuadorian navy, we would be shot if we jumped!
Soon we were on the move again and went on a dinghy ride in Black Turtle Cove on Santa Cruz Island. The water was murkier than usual but we still managed to see a spotted eagle ray, golden rays, baby sharks, and turtles among the mangroves.
We hurried back to the Flamingo so we could travel our anchor spot in time to swim and jump off the boat, which we did for the better part of an hour. Afterwards, I enjoyed watching the sunset between the low clouds and the horizon as the boat sat in the shadow of Chicken Hill (the name doesn't do it justice!). Created millions of years ago from volcanic debris, today it is inhabited by ferrel chickens. There's clearly no road to the top of the lush, green hill, but it looks like it has a series of natural switchbacks which remind me of Alpe d'Huez.
After dinner, the group played cards while I snuck away to the sun deck for some solo time to do one of the activities I miss the most while traveling: singing along with my iPod. I was really getting into it when a fellow passenger came to check on me. The fact that she literally fell over laughing suggests that my singing abilities do not yet match my gusto. But something then happened that has never happened to me before. As the card games wound down, the passengers one by one came up to the sun deck and started picking out songs they wanted to hear me sing (perhaps, more accurately, "sing")! When my iPod battery gave out, it was bedtime for all and I found myself again sleeping under a breezey canopy of stars.
Today's animals:
Black tipped sharks
White tipped reef sharks
Sea lions
Frigates
Fur seals
American oyster catcher
Moorish idol
Moray eel
Butterfly fish
Diablo fish
Cornet fish
Mating eagle rays
Golden rays
Lava heron
Marine iguanas
Galapagos land iguanas
Lava lizards
Blue footed boobies
Galapagos spider
Swallow tail gull
Crabs
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