Genovesa Island
The island of Genovesa is located at the most northern part of the archipelago. As we woke up in the morning, we found ourselves in the middle of the Captain’s maneuver to position the ship inside of a humongous, extinct caldera. The view was simply superb, but the best of all was probably to found ourselves immersed in the middle of a large colony of several species of sea birds. Red footed boobies were the highlight of the morning, followed close by the frigatebirds and of course, the always welcome sea lions!
We spent the most of our time strolling along the coastline of the island. The beach area is mainly adorned with lots of mangrove trees that are used for the red footed boobies as hiding place to escape the predation of frigatebirds. We found a lot of juveniles boobies perching on the trees and it was delightful to observe them playing with twigs and branches or simply staring at us as we went by.
The rest of the morning was dedicated to water activities. Swimming from the beach as well as the so called deep water snorkelling were among the most popular of all the activities, but I have to admit that a lot of people decided just to take it easy this morning and joined the sea lions as they were trying to “relax” on the beach.
The afternoon walk gave us a totally different view of the island. The walk at “Prince Philip Steps” was relatively easy and the amount of birds found among the palo santo forest was just as numerous as in the morning walk. As we were coming back from an already successful walk, we all encountered the “elusive” short eared owl in the middle of the trail. It was simply amazing to see a predator like an owl staring at us in confusion, and even better…at day time!
The day ended with incredible colours in the sky. As the sun set at the horizon, the light coming from the almost hidden sun, lit up the clouds. In a fraction of a second, all the shapes of the Galápagos animals were stamped at the sky, giving us the best sunset that we could ever ask for…
The island of Genovesa is located at the most northern part of the archipelago. As we woke up in the morning, we found ourselves in the middle of the Captain’s maneuver to position the ship inside of a humongous, extinct caldera. The view was simply superb, but the best of all was probably to found ourselves immersed in the middle of a large colony of several species of sea birds. Red footed boobies were the highlight of the morning, followed close by the frigatebirds and of course, the always welcome sea lions!
We spent the most of our time strolling along the coastline of the island. The beach area is mainly adorned with lots of mangrove trees that are used for the red footed boobies as hiding place to escape the predation of frigatebirds. We found a lot of juveniles boobies perching on the trees and it was delightful to observe them playing with twigs and branches or simply staring at us as we went by.
The rest of the morning was dedicated to water activities. Swimming from the beach as well as the so called deep water snorkelling were among the most popular of all the activities, but I have to admit that a lot of people decided just to take it easy this morning and joined the sea lions as they were trying to “relax” on the beach.
The afternoon walk gave us a totally different view of the island. The walk at “Prince Philip Steps” was relatively easy and the amount of birds found among the palo santo forest was just as numerous as in the morning walk. As we were coming back from an already successful walk, we all encountered the “elusive” short eared owl in the middle of the trail. It was simply amazing to see a predator like an owl staring at us in confusion, and even better…at day time!
The day ended with incredible colours in the sky. As the sun set at the horizon, the light coming from the almost hidden sun, lit up the clouds. In a fraction of a second, all the shapes of the Galápagos animals were stamped at the sky, giving us the best sunset that we could ever ask for…
