Also known as Tower Island, Genovesa is home to over one million seabirds. The highlights from today’s visit were diverse, including Nazca, red-footed and blue-footed boobies, gulls, owls, fur seals, hammerhead sharks, turtles and manta rays.
Early this morning, as we were disembarking, a red-footed booby landed on our naturalist Aura to our surprise and entertainment. Our adventure began with a walk, starting from the famous Prince Philip’s Steps where we were surrounded by Nazca boobies, red-footed boobies and frigatebirds. My colleague Christian was able to find the first elusive short-eared owl of the day! Lucky for us, our guests enjoyed two additional sightings, spotted flying on both occasions. All of us felt rewarded to have a unique view of the world’s only camouflaged diurnal raptor. Today was a red-footed booby day, and also we were able to spot many frigatebirds, including bachelors with their red gular pouch inflated, eager to be selected by females. Chicks were everywhere, and several Nazca boobies were spotted exhibiting courting behaviors as well, as they are starting their mating season.
Back aboard, we prepared for our next activities, including kayaking and our last snorkeling outing of the expedition. During our final exploration of the undersea realm, we had close encounters with many fish, playful sea lions and even some fur seals. Seeing them up close for the final time brought excitement and admiration.
After this great adventure, we came back to our ship anchored inside Genovesa caldera to be briefed about our departure. We enjoyed our last delicious lunch, the pride for our excellent culinary staff.
We were then ready to start off on our next adventure, which was a landing on a white coralline beach inside Darwin Bay, named in honor of a great naturalist who re-directed human thought, Charles Darwin. It was high tide as we walked over a platform at this site, surrounded by birds and chicks of all kinds, their chicks. It was moving to observe the behaviors of these active seabird parents, taking care of juveniles, hoping that one day they will be able to fend for themselves. We also spotted several local marine iguanas, which are smaller and darker than those we have seen so far, as this northern hemisphere island has much different ecology. Taking this walk was like being transported back in time. The lava formations here resemble the first foundations of Earth, and flying birds filled the sky, as they did during prehistoric times.
After our hike, it was time to return to the ship and reminisce about the many experiences of this wonderful week. As we look back and gaze at the islands for the last time, this place now seems timeless to us. It is deep within our hearts and our experience has been unforgettable on these special islands, where the wildlife that has no fear, allowing us to realize that we are not so different from them.
“We must not acknowledge the methodical saying ‘don’t humanize the animals’ but instead ‘animalize the human’ by perceiving our surrounding with all our senses; embracing nature by coexistence and respect for one another, so we can become one with nature as we once were.” Celso Montalvo.
We have all bonded like a family, united by this invisible mysticism. At the end of our journey, we hope that our guests will stay in touch, and we hope that the experience that they had this week will stay with them for a lifetime.
Adios amigos.
