Genovesa Island
Early this morning we entered Darwin Bay on Genovesa Island. As our captain dropped anchor we got our kayaks down and went to explore the cliffs of this bay. We had quite a great time observing frigates, boobies, sea lions, and gulls actively flying above our heads from our kayaks. At the end of this activity we returned aboard to have breakfast. Once we regained our energy, we headed ashore for a walk in one of the most beautiful places in Galapagos. All along the way we encounter nesting swallow tailed gulls, juveniles and adults red footed boobies as well as Nazca boobies.
After we returned from this walk, our guests got into their wetsuits and enjoyed a nice last snorkel in deep waters; there were good sightings of parrot fish, king angel fish, and a couple of Galapagos fur seals which were hanging out on the surface rubbing their bellies and floating peacefully in front of us.
This afternoon we went exploring on whole different site of this island, known as Prince Phillip steps. We walked first through a deciduous forest of Palo Santo; there were several red footed boobies nesting on top of these trees as well as Nazca boobies nesting on the ground. We also looked for the top land predator of this island, which is the short eared owl. After careful observation, we found four! It is always a challenge to find the owl, as they camouflage so well with the orange-brown lava, but we had some Galapagos mockingbirds that walked directly to one so we found our first right away!
Our day ended with a dazzling sunset on this incredible island full of bird life!
