Catching up…the poor internet finally got the best of me…but we are back on the mainland now …
Thursday afternoon was the ‘challenging’ hike on Punta Suarez which started off more challenging before we even touched land.
The seas were higher than we had yet experienced and our “dry” landing turned out to not be so. We came around a breakwater and were supposed to get off the zodiac onto a little concrete walkway on the breakwater. Unfortunately, the breakwater was doing it’s water breaking job as the waves were crashing over the break. The first guy off the zodiac was one of the Silversea employees with all of his expensive camera gear and a wave immediately came across almost up to his hips. He managed to keep his balance but the rest of us we not so keen on getting off.
The zodiac backed off of the landing and waited for a lull in the waves as we were all very vocally pleading our case for a beach landing. Our pleas went unanswered (something about having to follow orders) and disembark, we did. Scurrying like crabs to get safely past the waves and to that beach before the next onslaught. yikes. Michael was coming on a later boat for a shorter walk and I was sure/I hoped he would not get off the zodiac. (As it turned out his group was advised/warned ahead of time that conditions had deteriorated and that there was no longer any hope of a dry landing and that an alternate disembarkation site would be used so Michael never even got onto the zodiac.)
After we were on safe, dry land, the real fun started. The 2+hr hike was almost entirely over a terrain of massive rocks, sometimes unstable and only interrupted by a diversion down a small cliff, across a rocky beach and back up the other side. The group wobbled and dipped but trudged along past marine iguanas with red markings, lava lizards with their bright red necks indicative of breeding readiness, boobies and sea lions and more… all in search of the returning tropical Albatross.
These big seabirds spend months at sea never touching land until they return to their breeding grounds on this island. Their size and the fact that they haven’t really used their feet in so long can make their landings awkward, tumbling, crash landings. I was hoping to witness that. But the area of this island that they use as an airport landing strip is still surrounded by shrubs so you can’t actually see them hit the ground. We could get close enough to see one bird circle and consider and test the air currents and circle again and again until he finally landed (or so we assume since he never emerged again).
We did see one take off again. Walking awkwardly a few step towards the cliff edge. Stop. Wait. Walk a few steps again. Stop. Wait. Ok, his time, our guide would say. Walk, stop wait. Over and over until finally with surprisingly little drama, he stepped off the edge, dropped down out of site and them came soaring back up.
We were also lucky enough to see aome paired up birds engaging in their courting ritual - with the last pair consummating. (But video won’t upload so you have to take my word on that.)
After that we stumbled and tumbled like goonie birds back down the hill as the sun was setting for a much less exciting return onto the zodiac and back to the ship.
Here is a picture of a baby boobie being fed and another of an albatross conversing with a lava lizard. And since I am back in civilization now (a picture uploads in 5 SECONDS rather than 35 MINUTES) it looks like I may be even be able to upload the albatross mating ritual I can’t be sure until I click on publish but let’s see…and if so, my apologies for not focusing properly through the bush)
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