Today we arrived on Genovesa Island, the northernmost island that we’ll visit this week. We disembarked with a wet landing on a coralline beach, and soon we met the fauna of this island – birds. Red-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, yellow crowned night herons, swallow-tailed gulls, and frigate birds. A short walk took us to several spots where we saw the beauty of Darwin Bay. Along the beach we enjoyed these paradise-like sands, and the calm and serenity of the island. Then we went back on board and we got our snorkeling gear to go for a deep water snorkel along the cliff of Darwin Bay. Galapagos sharks are common over there, and there were myriad tropical fish! Golden rays and sea lions were spotted during the morning as well.
In the afternoon, we went for a Zodiac ride along the impressive cliff of Darwin Bay, which is full of nesting Nazca boobies, red billed tropic birds, fur sea lions basking on the rocks, storm petrels soaring away, and marine iguanas swimming in the water. Soon after, we disembarked on Prince Phillip’s Steps, another visitor site at the east side of the bay. There we enjoyed sea birds mating, hundreds of Nazca boobies nesting, little chicks being fed, and red-footed boobies building their nests. We the travelers felt like simply one more bird flock among the residents of this unique world. The incredible friendliness of the fauna of Galapagos has made a wonderful impression on us this week. It was an amazing expedition!
