Genovesa Island is located several hundred nautical miles away from the central part of this archipelago, right above the equator, and this location is the reason that the conditions here are so different from most of the islands in Galapagos. The water temperature tends to be a few degrees warmer than the rest of the islands, due to exposure to the Panama flow for a longer period of time during the year.
This island has an open caldera, which allows us to sail inside with the National Geographic Endeavour. This is a collapsed caldera, and its front part has slide into the ocean, forming a perfect little cove, a spectacular visitor site in Galapagos. The caldera is big enough to fit a few boats, but we were fortunate that for our last day, we had the privilege of having this place all to ourselves.
This island is home to hundreds of thousands of sea birds of different species, and something very unusual about this environment is the lack of a diurnal top predator—the Galapagos hawk does not inhabit this island. This has left an open niche in the food chain, which has surprisingly been filled the short-eared owl, which has developed diurnal hunting habits and now preys mostly on storm petrels. This is the only place on earth where you can see nocturnal top predator hunting during daylight hours.
Genovesa Island was never colonized by terrestrial reptiles either, which has allowed the prickly pear cacti to thrive. This is also why Genovesa marine iguanas are the smallest iguanas in the archipelago.
Different activities were available, to allow our guests to take full advantage of the geological formations and ecological conditions of this visitor site. We filled our day with hikes, kayaking, deep water snorkeling and a photography walked to capture Galapagos animals in action. We had a wonderful time exploring this unique island and its residents, showing us a different side of the beautiful Galapagos archipelago.
