Day 8, Isla Seymour Norte

On this, our eighth and final day in Galapagos, we had a dawn dry landing on North Seymour Island. We had the most amazing walk around colonies of mating frigatebirds, insterpsersed with blue-footed boobies, some of them nesting. There were great frigatebirds and magnificent frigatebirds. Frigatebirds can't dive into the water in search of food, because their long wings can get waterlogged in the process, leading to drowning. Frigatebirds engage in a fascinating form of mating behaviour. The male stays on land, close to a nest, puffing up his red throat pouch and making a shrieking sound, all in an effort to impress a females flying overhead. If the female is attracted, she lands by the nest and fixes it up a bit. Unless another male steals the female, mating begins. As for the blue-foooted boobies, Galapagos is home to three quarters of the world's population of this species.

By 8 AM we were back on board for breakfast, followed by a quick sail back to Baltra harbour, in time for our transfer to the airport for a flight back to Quito. In Balatra harbour I got to see the refueling operation of the cruise ships first hand- a rather precarious operation involving fuel barges that come right up to the cruise ships.