Genovesa
The northeastern island of Genovesa, also known as Tower, is one of the most beautiful places on our Earth. Particularly on a sunny and breezy early December morning when the frigate birds are beginning to think about courting and are thus plentiful in the air, and the red-footed boobies are finishing their nesting and are hence numerous in the mangrove shrubs. We admired the handsome pastel colors on the faces of the red-foots and noticed that they apparently peered at us with as much curiosity as we peered at them!
Also very active along the beach margin, were the lovely grey, black and white swallow-tailed gulls. This is possibly the most beautiful gull in the world, and with their large eyes (because they are nocturnal feeders) their color-coordinated red feet and red eye-ring, and their unusual rattling calls, they were often the subjects of our countless photographs this morning. Baby gulls were begging to be fed and some of us watched as a sizeable fish was regurgitated and offered to a hungry chick. Some of the chicks where still only weeks old, well camouflaged fluffy balls of grey and white that looked quite convincingly like a guano splattered lava rock. The better to hide from the marauding neighbors: the frigates.
A large billed ground finch with an enormous beak hopped along the beach, mockingbirds peeped from the cactus, yellow-crowned night herons were perched on the lava rocks and we spotted a pair of lava gulls calling back and forth to one another.
A group of guests relaxed on the beach after our walk and others returned to the ship, donned their wetsuits and joined Naturalist Jan for a final snorkel outing in the deep water along the base of the flooded caldera cliffs of Genovesa. There were schools of colorful fish and a spotted eagle ray.
In the afternoon we motored in our pangas below the cliffs and across the bay and watched soaring frigates and boobies and the flamboyant red-billed tropic birds with their streaming long tails. We climbed up Prince Phillip’s Steps and hiked through a palo santo forest where frigates and red-footed boobies were nesting and came back to the ship as the sun set – and huge fiery orange orb – into the Pacific.
Our weeklong exploration of the enchanted islands of Galápagos had come to an end, but the experiences we shared will remain in our memories for a lifetime. Being able to walk among the fearless birds, mammals and reptiles of these magical islands has been absolutely unforgettable!
