Genovesa Island
This was our last full day in the enchanted islands. And what a way to finish our expedition – visiting Genovesa Island, the crown jewel of the archipelago.
After today, our guests could confirm that the island has the largest populations of red-footed boobies in the world. Due to the lack of Galápagos Hawks, there’s a great diversity of seabird species at this site.
There were many highlights today, but I think the best of all was to see a lot of seabirds walking among us, totally unafraid. We encountered courting Frigate birds and nesting Nazca boobies all over along the trail. All of our activities took place inside the main caldera of Genovesa. Nature hikes, deep-water snorkeling and kayaking at Darwin’s Bay and Prince Philips Steps gave us a chance to explore both the marine and land ecosystem of the island.
One of the goals of the day was to find a short-eared owl during our nature hike at Prince Philips Steps. We were lucky to find more than one and to see it hunting a storm petrel.
Returning to the National Geographic Islander in our fleet of Zodiacs, we observed a spectacular sunset.
