Santa Cruz and North Seymour Islands
Santa Cruz is the second largest island and is the one with the largest human population; about 12,000 people live here and this is the operations centre of the Islander, anchored in Academy Bay all morning. The bay got the name after the San Francisco Academy of Sciences visited the islands a couple of times in the early 1900’s. Today we saw one of the most representative species of these islands, the Galápagos giant tortoises, in their natural habitat. It was a great experience to watch them moving in and out through the dense vegetation found on the southern side of the island.
In the afternoon our Captain repositioned the ship to North Seymour were we spent the rest of the day. For me it was particularly amazing to visit this tiny but splendid island, because I hadn’t been here in several years. Good to notice that it hasn’t changed a bit! The good old folks, the blue-footed boobies, were performing their courtship dances as they have always done. And those magnificent male frigates, opportunistic breeders as they are, had their wonderful pouches completely inflated for us, actually, for the female frigates flying around. We shared the rain and we shared the beach, human beings, sea lions and boobies, enjoying the view of the waves breaking against the shoreline.
Santa Cruz is the second largest island and is the one with the largest human population; about 12,000 people live here and this is the operations centre of the Islander, anchored in Academy Bay all morning. The bay got the name after the San Francisco Academy of Sciences visited the islands a couple of times in the early 1900’s. Today we saw one of the most representative species of these islands, the Galápagos giant tortoises, in their natural habitat. It was a great experience to watch them moving in and out through the dense vegetation found on the southern side of the island.
In the afternoon our Captain repositioned the ship to North Seymour were we spent the rest of the day. For me it was particularly amazing to visit this tiny but splendid island, because I hadn’t been here in several years. Good to notice that it hasn’t changed a bit! The good old folks, the blue-footed boobies, were performing their courtship dances as they have always done. And those magnificent male frigates, opportunistic breeders as they are, had their wonderful pouches completely inflated for us, actually, for the female frigates flying around. We shared the rain and we shared the beach, human beings, sea lions and boobies, enjoying the view of the waves breaking against the shoreline.
