Today we visited two beautiful visitor sites in the Galapagos Islands, Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove. Urbina was a great location for photography or just walking under the canopy of native and endemic plants looking for land iguanas, giant tortoises, and finches. Tagus Cove was visited by the great naturalist Charles Darwin, who would have seen some of the same species we saw today: Galapagos penguins, flightless cormorants, and more.
5/29/2025
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National Geographic Gemini
Genovesa Island
Genovesa is considered one of the Galapagos crown jewels, and today it was showing off all of its splendor. Immediately after breakfast we put on our sturdy shoes and set out to explore Prince Philip’s Steps. This area is known for opportunities to observe not only large colonies of nesting Nazca and red-footed boobies, but maybe, just maybe, the short-eared owl which exhibits diurnal behavior on this island. After this walk we got ready for a dip in the Pacific Ocean and snorkeling along the inner coast of this caldera. The afternoon was equally amazing as we disembarked to explore Darwin Bay, along a short and easy trail that was packed with wildlife. Here we observed not only nesting frigatebirds, red-footed boobies, and Nazca boobies, but also a few yellow-crowned night herons. It was another incredible afternoon in the Galapagos Islands.
