Mosquera Island

This was our last morning waking up on the boat. It felt weird to think it was over. We had gotten so used to our routine and the wonderful people we were spending time with.

However, we had one more fun stop before getting to the airport on Baltra Island.

While it was still dark, we loaded up on the pangas for a wet landing on tiny Mosquera Island, so small that I almost couldn’t find it on the map.

It’s located between Baltra (where we would fly out of) and North Seymour Island, which we had visited on our first night arriving in the Galapagos. We had seen and experienced so much over the last 10 days, that that felt like months ago.

It’s basically just a long, narrow sand spit with a large population of sea lions, plus some marine iguanas and Sally Lightfoots.

After a wet landing, they let us loose to run free on the beach. We looked as excited as kindergartners being let out for recess.

The sun hadn’t even come up yet when we arrived, so we got to watch the animals wake up as well, many of the sea lions looking pretty sleepy. I could relate.

We saw our old friends, the marine iguanas, draping themselves over a beautiful white rock, trying to catch the first morning rays to warm up their cold-blooded bodies. Their black against the brilliant while of the rocks made for a nice contrast in the early morning light.

We too stood on the shoreline watching the sun make its first appearance above the horizon. Herb captured it rising between my outstretched legs as if I was some sun goddess willing it to rise.

The sea lions were very cute, playful, and friendly, some of them even coming up and touching us - not the aggressive male bulls, but the cute little ones. They rolled in the sand, played in the surf, and even posed for us.

The Sally Lightfood crabs were out and about, busy scurrying around the shoreline. Two of them looked like Sumo wrestlers about to do battle. I saw my first one running down a hill - he looked quite different from his more dignified stationary pose.

We even saw some spotted stingrays swimming along the shoreline.

When the time to leave approached, a beautiful rainbow crossed the sky over the sea - a magical ending to a magical vacation.

Recap of wildlife we saw today: sea lions, marine iguanas, Sally Lightfoot crabs