Genovesa Island, also called Tower in English, is one of five islands that lie above the Equator Line in the Galapagos, and the only one out of the five that has visitor’s sites, where people are allowed to disembark. It is one of the lowest islands of the archipelago, and the only volcano located here suffered a total collapse on one side, so the ocean flooded in and filled the caldera entirely, which allows ships to more easily navigate and anchor in it.
For this excursion, our group was split in half. One portion visited Darwin Bay for a nice, relaxing walk at long Coralie beach to explore a tidal zone. The main attraction of this site is the red footed booby, but this is by no means the only bird that we see here—the visitor site is one giant nesting ground for different sea bird species. We spotted swallow tailed gulls, and sea lions lounging along the beach, and we also found many mockingbirds, great frigate birds, and red-footed boobies behind the salt bushes.
The second portion of the explorers disembarked at The Prince Phillips Steps. During our walk along the dry vegetation of this island, we saw many of the same birds that reside at Darwin Bay, only we were able to get closer to them. After walking for ten minutes or so, we came upon a great volcanic platform, where the observation of the endemic sub species of the short eared owls was the highlight of the walk.
This day in the island of Genovesa was a great way to end our incredible expedition in the Galapagos Archipelago.
