Darwin’s Bay is a calm sheltered cove used for many years by sailors who came to the islands. The volcano caldera is no longer active and is now a beautiful bay protected from the wind. The first early outing on the Zodiac started at six thirty in the morning along with eight exploring kayaks. It was drizzling, but it did not matter, early is beautiful.
Soon after everybody got into the kayaks the rain stopped and paddling along the coast of the bay was a delight. The local birds were also waking up, perhaps at the same time we did, and they were very active making our kayaking a joy.
After about an hour of kayaking we returned to the National Geographic Islander to eat. Breakfast was waiting for us and right after we all disembarked for the first excursion of the day. This morning we had a wet landing on a small white sand beach made out of white coral, and upon landing we were surrounded by a lot of sea birds of different species.
The walk was rather easy, along a sandy path where red mangroves grow providing space for red footed boobies to nest on them. We saw chicks of all sizes and we could see how big they can grow from one week to another by looking at each nest.
Along with red footed boobies we observed some Nazca boobies nesting and also some of the most curious finches of the Galapagos - the large ground finch as well as the sharp beaked ground finch, known as Vampire Finch. The walk along the beach was not too long, just the right length to get the feeling of what life is like on the equator in the Galapagos.
After the beach walk we all came back on board to get ready to go snorkeling, the last snorkel, so we were excited take advantage of it.
The afternoon started with Zodiac ride sessions for the young members of the group. It was fun to see the kids driving the Zodiac, accepting the challenge, their eyes so bright.
The last part of the day we all disembarked on Prince Phillips steps. We had a dry landing on a ledge where we climbed a cliff, helped by a railing to get us to the top. Once at the top we had a rather easy trail and from there we could walk along and view Nazca booby nests, Red footed booby nests, and a variety of birds perching on the Palo Santo Trees along the path.
It was a lovely walk, the right place to appreciate our time here and say goodbye to Galapagos. At the end of our walk we had a surprise, a Short eared owl! It is one of the local hunters and we saw it several times along the trail, but this time we saw it fighting in the air, hunting, sitting nearby, so we could observe every single detail of this beautiful bird. Then the sun set below the horizon.
