Genovesa Island
The caldera of Genovesa Island collapsed in the western side quite a long time ago and nowadays it is filled by ocean water. Early in the morning, we sailed into this caldera using the navigation towers located on the rim of this volcano. A group of juvenile red-footed boobies came to perch on the antennas of the ship and to have a look of their island from the Polaris.
The weather was perfect all morning. We disembarked in the little white sandy coralline beach of Darwin Bay. Thousands of marine birds live in this island and are very active in the morning. The cleptoparasit great frigate birds were chasing red-footed and Nazca boobies in flight in order to steal their food. Once they get food they go to feed their own chicks. As we can see in the picture, there is a juvenile great frigate bird being fed by the mother from whom it gets all the support until becoming independent.
This island appears to host the largest population of red-footed boobies in the world and it is thought that they might be around a quarter of million in here. In the afternoon a group of hikers were motivated to search for the short-eared owl. This owl has a very strange behavior, because of the lack of Galápagos hawks on this island. Without day competitors, they are diurnal hunters. They prey on small land and sea birds. Being a very rare bird, we felt very lucky to find one owl.
The island was beautiful for other activities as well, such as snorkelling in the deep water and from the beach, or just swimming which was great. A new option that is becoming very popular among the guest is kayaking along the inside walls of the caldera, which was just fantastic. It is like this that we have enjoyed our sixth day in this beautiful paradise called the Galápagos.
The caldera of Genovesa Island collapsed in the western side quite a long time ago and nowadays it is filled by ocean water. Early in the morning, we sailed into this caldera using the navigation towers located on the rim of this volcano. A group of juvenile red-footed boobies came to perch on the antennas of the ship and to have a look of their island from the Polaris.
The weather was perfect all morning. We disembarked in the little white sandy coralline beach of Darwin Bay. Thousands of marine birds live in this island and are very active in the morning. The cleptoparasit great frigate birds were chasing red-footed and Nazca boobies in flight in order to steal their food. Once they get food they go to feed their own chicks. As we can see in the picture, there is a juvenile great frigate bird being fed by the mother from whom it gets all the support until becoming independent.
This island appears to host the largest population of red-footed boobies in the world and it is thought that they might be around a quarter of million in here. In the afternoon a group of hikers were motivated to search for the short-eared owl. This owl has a very strange behavior, because of the lack of Galápagos hawks on this island. Without day competitors, they are diurnal hunters. They prey on small land and sea birds. Being a very rare bird, we felt very lucky to find one owl.
The island was beautiful for other activities as well, such as snorkelling in the deep water and from the beach, or just swimming which was great. A new option that is becoming very popular among the guest is kayaking along the inside walls of the caldera, which was just fantastic. It is like this that we have enjoyed our sixth day in this beautiful paradise called the Galápagos.
