We had a long rather bumpy navigation last night, but at dawn, once Captain Pablo Garces had the anchor dropped inside the eroded and flooded caldera of Genovesa Island, the National Geographic Islander swung peacefully in the light wind and chop for the rest of the day.
A group of eager kayakers, escorted by naturalist Aura and panguero Max, paddled along at the base of the dramatic cliffs admired the myriad birds that inhabit this northern island. Genovesa is home to perhaps as many as a half million seabirds! After breakfast we all—every one of the guests who are on the ship this week—headed in to land on a tiny coral sand beach that is tucked into the corner of Darwin Bay. There were birds everywhere!
Elegant black, white, and gray swallow tailed gulls, some with eggs and others with their fluffy chicks, nested just behind the beach. Their red legs and red eye-ring, along with their delicately patterned feathers, make this one of the world’s most beautiful gulls. They feed during the night to avoid the piracy of frigatebirds and are the strictly nocturnal gull species.
Frigatebirds perched on the low saltbush shrubs. Many had golden heads that identified them as juveniles. These young birds are still hanging around the nest sites hoping to be fed again by their parents. Meanwhile a new frigate breeding cycle is about to commence, and today we did see one of the first male frigates of the season with a puffed red pouch.
In the mangrove trees the red-footed boobies were roosting and resting and some were already sitting on nests. We admired the beautiful pastel pink and blue colors on their faces and observed how they grasp branches to perch with their bright red, prehensile feet. They are the only tree-nesting booby found in Galápagos.
In the afternoon Pato took another group of kayakers out and they paddled from the ship to the afternoon’s trailhead. The hike began with a climb up the cliff on a rough lava stair. We then hiked along a broken lava and cinder trail into a palo santo forest and then out to an open lava field. Again, there were seabirds everywhere—frigates and boobies and storm petrels. In particular we enjoyed watching the juvenile Nazca boobies practicing their coordination by tossing pebbles and sticks in the air or working on building up their flight muscles and flapping in the breeze.
We walked along slowly searching for owls. As they are the exact reddish brown color of the old lava rock, they are hard to spot. We found one though; sitting motionless huddled on a ledge. The owls feed on storm petrels that nest under the lava in tunnels and caves.
Once again, the afternoon temperature was perfect: neither too hot not too cool. As we motored back to the ship in our Zodiacs, the sun set as a blazing ball of orange. We were nostalgic this afternoon as the voyage had come to its end—but what amazing things we have seen and shared and experienced in the magical Islas Galápagos!
