On the second day on Santa Cruz island, we met our guide, Meriam Leon in front of the Tortuga Bay on Charles Darwin street and got on a tour bus for about a 40 minute ride back to the Itabaca Channel to board the Espanola Yacht for our day long Seymour tour. We sailed for about 45 minutes to North Seymour and boarded a dinghy that took us to an arid island inhabited only by frigatebirds, blue-footed boobies, seals, sea lions, land iguanas, lizards, swallow tail gulls….
The walk, according to our guide, would take no more than 20 minutes but she wanted us to take it all in and not hurry. She did say that we should not be on the island for more than an hour so that other groups can have their opportunity to visit. We ended up staying for a little longer, and went back with images of male frigate birds displaying their vibrant red-throat pouches to attract the ladies, baby frigates peeking out behind their mamas showing us their fuzzy heads, a single blue-footed boobie, colorful lizards darting along the trail and iguanas moving like dinosaurs turning to look at us with stretched lips that almost looked like grins. I have never witnessed such a scene- birds and reptiles relatively unafraid of human presence. We were respectful. We were visitors on their land. We kept our voices down, we did not divulge from the marked trail and we kept respectful distance from the birds and animals.
As we headed back to the dinghy, Sean told me to stop moving, Ryan started laughing and I got nervous. Sean started taking photos of me while saying “Don’t move! Don’t move!”
“What is it? Do I have a bug on my head? Is it a tarantula? Oh my god, what is it?”
The others in the group also stopped in front of me and started wowing. Finally, I saw the photos and realized that I was the chosen one. A lovely grasshopper perched on my head. I actually held still till it flew away on its own accord.
I want to mention the delightful lunch that the staff at the yacht prepared for us. Once we returned to the yacht, we were offered lunch which constituted of white rice, boiled potatoes with queso on top, a simple salad of cabbage and tomatoes with fresh lime, and delectable tuna steak sautéed on a pan. For dessert there were slices of sweet watermelon. This simple fare was immensely satisfying and although we ate many good meals during our 10 day stay in Ecuador, I still fondly remember this lunch.
After lunch, we headed toward a beach for snorkeling. The water was crystal clear but I heard they couldn’t see much as people kicked up the sediment with their flippers as they swam. I did not snorkel since I don’t know how to swim and I am uncomfortable in water. While the group snorkeled, I went for a walk by myself till I came to a quiet inlet. There I saw a solitary flamingo deeply focused in getting his food. I stood there awhile, surrounded by sand, water, greenery and a solitary flamingo. That particular moment is ingrained in my head – a moment of communing between me and a bird that I will never see again. The flamingo was not even aware of my presence and I felt humbled to have the chance to stand there watching him.
The island of birds and reptiles, the crystal clear, aquamarine water, the flamingo in that quiet inlet, a heron sitting completely still; a stillness that very few of us can imbibe within us…. all these have stayed with me. I worry that memory may fade away with time so I am documenting it here. Maybe, in a few years, if I read this blog, I will relive the moment again.
On the 3rd day, we went to see the Charles Darwin Center and learned about the conservation work that many scientists are doing. We also saw saddleback tortoises and the baby tortoises that the staff of Charles Darwin Center are raising to release in the wild when they are five or six years old. But that blog is for tomorrow.
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