Last night we navigated from the central realm of Galapagos towards Genovesa Island, which is the north eastern most island in the archipelago.
After breakfast we headed ashore to explore this island, which is well known for the many birds colonies nesting here. Along the coast we encountered large numbers of red footed boobies, Nazca boobies, and great frigatebirds. This past year was a good one for the reproduction of red footed boobies, so we found hundreds of juveniles, and some adults were observed nesting, while others were feeding their chicks.
This morning, we also managed to fit in a snorkeling excursion after the walk. Some of our guests found Manta rays, sea turtles, and some even encountered a lonely scalloped hammer head shark. As Darwin’s Bay has very calm waters, we had a great opportunity to go kayaking along the impressive cliffs of the caldera. This volcano is no longer active, and Darwin’s Bay is one out of two calderas that exist on this island. The many different layers of lava showed us the past volcanic activity of this volcano.
At the end of the morning we returned aboard to have lunch, and during the afternoon we headed ashore for a delightful walk where we continued observing birds. One of the highlights of this afternoon was spotting a couple of short eared owls; this species is the top predator of this island.
At the end of the afternoon we returned aboard and started to navigate towards Baltra Island. Another wonderful day in Galapagos!
