Our morning update came at 6:20 a.m. and we hit the deck day early. Some of us started our day with an early bird expedition landing craft tour while other loyal stretchers joined me on the sun deck for our morning movement class. Whether we were early risers or we waited for the “civilized hour” tour, we all got the privilege of exploring the waters around Bona and Otoque islands on the expedition landing craft and the stars of the morning had feathers! These islands are filled with birds—magnificent frigatebirds, brown boobies, blue-footed boobies, and brown pelicans were a few that we saw today. We learned some fun science vocabulary words, like “kleptoparasitic” and “siblicide”, we were wooed by the male frigatebird’s impressive red pouch, and we took some fantastic photos.
Our next stop was six hours away but before we could get underway we spotted some blows on the surface and took some time to investigate. We were rewarded for our time with glimpses of a few very quick and unpredictable Bryde’s whales. It takes an alert eye to spot them when they surface and luckily we had many pairs of eyes on board!
After lunch we were treated to a presentation from our guest association lecturer, Willow Zuchowski, about tropical fruits and crops and their migrations to and from the tropics. By the time she had clarified all of our questions about sweet potatoes versus yams we had arrived at our next destination: Iguana Island.
At Iguana Island we had a chance to put on our snorkel gear and get wet! The water was warm, the fish were plentiful, and life was good. We also took a stroll around the island and saw more tropical birds and a few iguanas and a beach full of hermit crabs. The afternoon ended with a beautiful sunset and a short expedition landing craft ride back to our floating home, National Geographic Sea Lion.
