As the sun rose this morning, the Polaris approached one of the northern islands of the Galapagos Archipelago, Genovesa. This island is often considered one of the jewels in the crown of the Enchanted Islands, as it is a completely pristine place, and home to so many birds it is sometimes called “Hitchcock Island”! Frigatebirds soared overhead, and myriad red-footed boobies circled the ship as our captain prepared to negotiate the tricky entrance into the caldera of this old volcano. The maneuver entails lining up with a couple of navigational towers on the far side of the caldera to come over the narrow passage deep enough for a ship our size to cross. Once over the submerged wall, the old crater drops down to several hundred feet deep, and Captain Hinojosa sailed to the far corner of the bay to anchor. This bay is named after probably the most famous visitor to the islands, Charles Darwin, about whom we learned more in the afternoon.
This morning we boarded our floating fleet of “limousines” to make a wet landing on the coralline beach of the bay, and once landed we were immediately surrounded by bird cries: courtship, demands for food, harassment by the frigates and other sounds greeted our ears. This island truly is an overwhelming nature experience, as the proximity of all this activity truly defies belief. One hardly needs to walk a step in this visitor site to observe nature more closely than in any other place in the world.
