North Seymour & Rabida Islands

 Our first full day aboard. We are getting used to the ship and its spaces and services. We are up early and set to expeditioning! All aboard the fleet of Zodiacs to go ashore. Life jackets on, please! First stop is a hike along the beach at North Seymour Island. We had many serious photographers on the voyage, including Vicki Landon and Dave Weilert, from Austin. We got to share our experiences with them a few other couples as the voyage moved on. They shared many of their great pix and I will use them and images/videos from other travelers. ​The word ‘galapago’ means ‘tortoise’ in Spanish; the islands are named after the giant tortoises that live on some of them.

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Next stop was Rabida Island. In 1975 the Galapagos National Park Service successfully eradicated introduced goats from the island, and in 2011 destructive, introduced black rats were removed. The Park Service and hosts of scientists and naturalists have been studying, monitoring, and protecting these islands for about 80 years. See the Galapagos Conservancy site to learn more. Here Merle and I tried our first snorkeling adventure in a number of years. I was testing out my GoPro Hero 9 - we saw a lot of sardines and Yellow Tails.

The Galapagos Islands contributed significantly to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He collected and later reflected on the differences between the different species of finches from the islands. 
"Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range... Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhere near to that great fact, that mystery of mysteries --the appearance of the new beings on this earth." Charles Darwin, 1845. 

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