We arrived early this morning, before sunrise, at Darwin Bay in Genovesa Island. Our Captain skillfully navigated the narrow and deep water channel that leads to the only appropriate anchorage within an outstanding collapsed crater that has opened to the ocean in recent geological times. Our plan for the day was to explore the great seabird breeding grounds. Over a quarter of a million nesting pairs of great frigate birds, red footed and Nazca boobies live here! After breakfast our guests were ready for action, as we separated into two landing parties, so as to minimize the impact on the only two visitor sites that Genovesa has to offer: one was to visit the beach, the other, to walk through the forest. Despite being one of the smallest islands in the Archipelago the sight of being within this magnificent crater is overwhelming! After, we explored the coast aboard our Zodiacs to find a suitable site for snorkeling, which we found!
In the afternoon, we shifted groups, and both had the opportunity to see red mangroves noisy with red footed booby’s activity as they delivered nesting material to their nesting building partners. We enjoyed our last kayaking opportunity along the steep cliffs of the inside of the bay which was equally rewarding. We saw large numbers of frigate birds soared on the thermals as they kept an eye out for any successful plunge dives by the other sea birds with the intention of stealing the fish from them. Frigate birds are known as pirates of the air! We also had the excellent opportunity to photograph our endemic sub-species of short eared owl, which is chiefly a day hunter, in the absence of the Galapagos hawk in the island.
As the sun set we crossed the bay once again returning to National Geographic Endeavour which was ready to lift anchor and leave the bay to end our week in Paradise!
