Genovesa Island
The island of Genovesa, also known as Tower, is the northernmost island that we’ll visit this voyage and it is probably the highlight of the week. Early in the morning we anchored in the submerged caldera of Genovesa and immediately we were surrounded by frigatebirds, red-footed boobies, swallow-tailed gulls, storm petrels, tropicbirds, and an experience that can only be felt here.
This island is very fragile and the visitor sites have a reduced capacity for visitors, therefore we have to divide our groups among the two sites. The first group went to Prince Philip's Steps, a narrow fissure in the cliff that has some natural and man-made steps and a hand railing that helps us to get to the top of the island.
At the top of this cliff a colony of Nazca boobies taking care of their chicks was the reward for our effort. We could not stop taking pictures of these proud parents protecting their chicks; a little further up we followed a trail among a Palo Santo forest. Everyone was amazed to see how these animals show no interest in us as the red-footed boobies nest and have the best spot on the island to witness our passage through the forest.
This enchanted trail led us to a colony of over 200,000 storm petrels nesting on the lava fields. They are the favorite prey for the short-eared owls, which hunt during the daytime. We were lucky enough to find four short-eared owls; some of them were in a bush and others were changing their positions and that is when we were able to spot them.
After our morning hike, we all came back on board to change quickly for our last snorkel and kayak outing along the cliffs of the caldera. In the afternoon we went ashore to Darwin’s Bay beach, a beautiful site with white coral sand and hundreds of boobies, frigatebirds, swallow-tailed gulls and yellow-crowned night herons. The trail took us close to some red mangroves, nesting site for the red-footed boobies and a little further we were close to a salt bush area, where the frigatebirds like to nest.
This was the perfect island for our farewell to this mystic place, definitely an overwhelming place that takes your breath away; the contrast of colors among the animals, the vegetation, the white sand and the black lava is dramatic, not to mention all the different sounds that surround us all day, reminding us that nature is fragile and that we are here to protect it and live in harmony with all living creatures.
