Genovesa Island
Our day started “late” today – the wake up call was not until 6:30am! After breakfast, most of us headed in the pangas to the beach in Darwin Bay. There we were treated to the amazing ritual of courtship of the frigate birds. The females would swoop and dive above the males, who spread their wings and inflated their red neck sacks, calling to the females, “Choose me! Choose me!” We saw one female make her choice and land on the outstretched wing of the male – oops, he couldn’t hold her up and off she flew. We also saw the beautiful red-footed boobies and swallow tail gulls. The red-footed boobies were an unusual site, gripping the branches of the mangroves with their prehensile, webbed feet. But their mating calls sure can’t live up to the beautiful dances and whistles of their blue-footed kin! As we were leaving the beach, we saw a swallow-tail gull with her egg. The egg began to wiggle and soon a tiny hole and a tiny beak appeared.
Other, more adventurous people rode the panga to Prince Phillips Steps and hiked through the tumbled rocks to the cliff above where they also saw the frigate birds, gulls and boobies.
Following our hikes, we cooled off with a deep water snorkel along the base of the cliffs. We were told to be on the look-out for hammerhead sharks. What!!??! My sister threw me in the water to “test for sharks.” Luckily, there were none! We did see bump-head parrot fish, sea cucumbers, scorpion fish, giant hawkfish, rainbow wrasse and, of course, sea lions (so cute).
All of that before lunch – whew! The afternoon was filled with naps, kayaking, more hikes, swimming off the boat launch and best of all, massages in the floating spa. Ahhhhhh. Then we enjoyed the beautiful sunset as we sailed away from the island with cocktails on the sky bridge, followed by a barbecue dinner on the teak deck. We ended the evening with a rousing game of Galápagos jeopardy to test our knowledge of the islands so far. Some of us have learned a lot, some of us will just have to come back and try again!
Our day started “late” today – the wake up call was not until 6:30am! After breakfast, most of us headed in the pangas to the beach in Darwin Bay. There we were treated to the amazing ritual of courtship of the frigate birds. The females would swoop and dive above the males, who spread their wings and inflated their red neck sacks, calling to the females, “Choose me! Choose me!” We saw one female make her choice and land on the outstretched wing of the male – oops, he couldn’t hold her up and off she flew. We also saw the beautiful red-footed boobies and swallow tail gulls. The red-footed boobies were an unusual site, gripping the branches of the mangroves with their prehensile, webbed feet. But their mating calls sure can’t live up to the beautiful dances and whistles of their blue-footed kin! As we were leaving the beach, we saw a swallow-tail gull with her egg. The egg began to wiggle and soon a tiny hole and a tiny beak appeared.
Other, more adventurous people rode the panga to Prince Phillips Steps and hiked through the tumbled rocks to the cliff above where they also saw the frigate birds, gulls and boobies.
Following our hikes, we cooled off with a deep water snorkel along the base of the cliffs. We were told to be on the look-out for hammerhead sharks. What!!??! My sister threw me in the water to “test for sharks.” Luckily, there were none! We did see bump-head parrot fish, sea cucumbers, scorpion fish, giant hawkfish, rainbow wrasse and, of course, sea lions (so cute).
All of that before lunch – whew! The afternoon was filled with naps, kayaking, more hikes, swimming off the boat launch and best of all, massages in the floating spa. Ahhhhhh. Then we enjoyed the beautiful sunset as we sailed away from the island with cocktails on the sky bridge, followed by a barbecue dinner on the teak deck. We ended the evening with a rousing game of Galápagos jeopardy to test our knowledge of the islands so far. Some of us have learned a lot, some of us will just have to come back and try again!
