Today we anchored inside the submerged caldera, a volcano on Genovesa Island. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, a big portion of Genovesa Island collapsed into the sea. Then waves and currents eroded the already exposed walls, and so a narrow entrance formed. All sorts of sea life entered and colonized the floors of a once-dry mass, which today is a bay. Sharks, rays, and all sorts of fish swam into the caldera as the sea reconquered the land, which we saw and enjoyed this morning.
After an early kayaking activity and a great breakfast, we had a wonderful walk in a shallow beach made of coralline sands. We enjoyed the company of its inhabitants, such as red-footed boobies, frigate birds, Nazca boobies, and swallow-tailed gulls.
After some incredible snorkeling and a well-deserved lunch, we hiked the southern peninsula. Genovesa’s isolation has been a good reason for its unique characteristics—there are no land reptiles here, like in the other islands, and very few land birds, among them the short-eared owl. We looked for this diurnal hunter, and we were excited to find short-eared owls in the daytime!
The afternoon ended with a gorgeous sunset. This was a great end to our visit to paradise.
