Strange new world

It's our very first afternoon on the Galapagos Islands. After the first 'briefing' by the guide – a practice that will be a firm part of every day for the duration of the cruise – our group of sixteen has piled into the two dinghies, and we are taken to the shore of North Seymour, a small island just north of Isla Santa Cruz where our plane from Guayaquil landed this morning. Johann, our Galapagos-born guide, explained that we could expect to see not only blue-footed boobies and frigate birds here but also land iguanas and sea lions. We would be excited to see them, he said, eager to take photos, but by the end of the week we'd say, 'oh, sea lions again ...'

 

Seeing a sea lion mother nurse her baby right beside our path, we find it very hard to believe that we could ever not get excited at the sight.

 

Slowly we follow Johann on a well-marked path along the dry, rocky island. He has instructed us to stay between the black and white stakes marking the trail on both sides: anything beyond is off-limits to visitors.

 

Whatever grows here has small leaves and small white or yellow flowers at best; most of the low shrubs look as if they are dead. It is the end of the dry season, and the rains will start shortly, continuing for the next two to three months. Trees will get leaves, and it will get greener, but of course it is much more pleasant to walk on dry paths in the sunshine as we are doing now, and for us the most important thing is watching the animals.

Looking around I realize that the Galapagos Islands are indeed a world in themselves, unlike anything I have seen so far, even anything I imagined, and reading and hearing about it could not have prepared me for what it is like. The animals are everywhere – and they don't pay any attention to our presence! I stand listening to the sucking of the sea lion baby only a few steps away, watch the mother shift in the sand to get more comfortable, head bent back, eyes closed. It is as if we don't exist for them.

It is the same for any other animals we encounter. We have to be careful not to step on them – they don't know anything about paths, of course, and time and again we have to walk around blue-footed boobies, males, females, or youngsters.

 

Under a prickly pear cactus we find our first yellow land iguana and can take our time taking in its features, its scaly front legs and head, its smoother back, its long tail. It has sought out the cactus for the shade it provides, and it is not going anywhere just because a few humans are staring at it.

Suddenly Johann stops us, puts a finger to his lips and points to two birds on a little rise close by. We watch how one of them slowly lifts a bright blue foot, raises his wings, then raises the other one, raising his wings again, a high whistle accompanying each move – we immediately recognize that we are witnessing the mating dance of the blue-footed booby! Johann gave us a demonstration of the dance on the boat earlier: he does an excellent imitation, as we can now confirm.

It is rare to see boobies do their mating ritual on this island at this time of year, so we feel very lucky to be able to witness it. The male continues to dance his slow dance, then stops and picks something up in his beak: a present for his chosen bride. This can be a small stick or a little rock, or whatever else he can find. He places it on the foot of the female, where she inspects it for a moment, deciding if she should accept it or not. If she does, it means that he, too will be accepted. If not, she'll kick off whatever he placed on her foot, and he will have to continue to dance and look for presents. It is the female who decides on her partner, and she might well continue to reject him and wait for another one.

We leave them to their courtship and return to the shore, where Patricio and Renato are already waiting for us with the dinghies to take us back to the 'Guantanamera' a few hundred meters away.

What an awesome start to our Galapagos adventure!