Red Beach and Flamingos on Rabida Island

December 11, 2009

The Galapagos Islands are a never ending box of surprises… This morning, as we are heading aboard the ship’s Zodiacs for the first outing of the day, we cannot believe the color of the beach where we are going to land on… it is actually a  dark reddish beach, dotted with some sea lion families and many juvenile pelicans perched on the green mangroves. The beach color makes a notorious contrast with the bay’s blue waters and the frame of green bushes behind it, one more curiosity that needs an explanation….

Once on shore, after one more “wet landing”, not exempt of its bit of adventure and fun, we congregate around Camilo, our native naturalist guide, and the question we all have about the beach’s color has a rather simple yet clear answer: the sand which forms the beach is of volcanic origin and, due to its unusually high content of iron, oxidation has taken place over time and has given the beach its rare and quite unique reddish-rusty color…

Sorted out the initial mystery, we put on our expedition shoes and follow the National Park’s marked trail, past the green “salty bushes” and, just behind the beach, another fascinating sight unfolds before our eyes… a relatively small and shallow lagoon with reflections of red and rusty colors, surrounded by small mangroves and green bushes is framed, on its background, by the mysterious looking hills of Rabida or Jervis Island.  The lagoon is not void of life… quite the contrary… we are just a few feet away from some two dozen brightly colored pink flamingos, one more of the Galapagos rarities, a bird commonly found on the Caribbean, yet established on small populations, in and around similar lagoons on a few locations of the Galapagos archipelago… Along with the flamingos we can also see some Galapagos pin-tailed ducks, drifting back and forth and along the sandy shores, a pair of tall and pretty black-necked stilts, with their pinkish long legs and long beaks seem to have a quiet conversation on a shady corner….

While Camilo enthusiastically explained to us that the pink coloration of the flamingos  comes from the food that they eat, from the lagoon’s sandy bottom: a reddish type of shrimp called “artemia”, high on carotene, carries the element responsible for their pigmentation; the flamingos had a surprise prepared for our group: unexpectedly, at the call of a dominant male, they all divide into two groups and developed almost perfect formations one in front of each other…  soon we find out that the two groups are one of males and, of course, the other one, females… Next, always following the calls of the dominant male, an awesome natural show is staged right in front of our eyes: the males display their highly colorful wings, letting the black under wing feathers show, contrasting elegantly with the almost red color of the open wings and engage on a unique group courtship dance, a kind of sublime flamingo ballet, which finds an immediate response with equally ballet type  movements and sounds, all done in groups, by the female flamingos… The dramatic show is so stunning that we quietly sit in the sand for more than twenty minutes, nobody daring to say a word, just enjoying and watching (and also filming or photographing), the magnificent scene…. 

The flamingo show continues, but we have to leave, with regret, to complete a short hike over a marked trail flanked by abundant native vegetation, with “palo santo” trees, “cordia” and “castella” bushes and dozens of Darwin’s finches busily flying around.  A picturesque cove of turquoise waters, dotted with some reddish rocks brings in one more beautiful sight… Soon we will be snorkeling right there, as we actually did, minutes later, ferried by the Zodiacs, to enjoy some pleasant temperature, calm and clear waters, which allowed for great sightings of schools of colorful fishes, many wrasses and sergeant major fishes, a moray eel peeking at the entrance of her small underwater cave and some red brittle starfish on the sandy bottom…

Back on board our beautiful expedition vessel, the Santa Cruz, a refreshing “bloody mary” puts the perfect touch to this sunny morning, one more fascinating time of discovery on the magically “Enchanted” Galapagos Islands…