Genovesa Island
Early in the morning we entered into the caldera of Genovesa Island. This volcano is extinct and its old caldera is now a large bay known as Darwin’s Bay. We spent our day at the only two sites opened by the Galápagos National Park.
Genovesa Island is by far one of the most amazing islands. It is full of seabirds such as red-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, swallow-tailed gulls, great frigatebirds, and brown pelicans. It also has a small colony of Galápagos sea lions, and Galápagos fur seals. We were happily surprised by the presence of short-eared owls and their favorite pray, the Galápagos storm petrels, found here by the thousands.
Today we observed many of the great frigatebirds nesting and lots of their chicks fully covered in downy feathers. These birds often chase other birds to steal food from them; they will also try to take the nesting material such as twigs from each other and from red-footed boobies. The sky is full of loud sounds from scared boobies trying to escape from the aggressive attack of a frigate.
This is the island of the birds; we see them at every corner, in every cave, all around us, pleasing us with their agile flight and their sounds. We will always keep in our memories the beauty of this island and its amazing creatures.
