Galapagos Adventure (Genovesa Island) Friday, Nov.25-Day 7

Our last full day on the Endeavor, Genovesa Island in view from our port hole

Schedule for today:
0700-0800     Breakfast
0800              Diembarkation for Prince Philip's Steps (dry landing)
1030              Deep water snorkelers depart from the ship, followed by people going to the beach
1200              All Aboard
1230             Departure briefing in the lounge
1300             Lunch
1330             Young Explorers meet in lounge with journals
1400            Kayakers depart from the ship
1530           Disembark for Darwin Bay (wet landing)
1900           Join Captain Patricio Jaramillo for our Farewell Cocktail Party in the lounge
1930           Dinner is served
2045           Crossing of the equator line: you are welcome on the bridge

Earlier this morning around 2 a.m. we crossed the equator and as Ximena explains, "we are way up north" which made me chuckle as she even commented on how much cooler it was, 80 as opposed to 85 degrees.  Genovesa is also known by it's English name of Tower (after a British admiral).  It is a paradise for an overwhelming seabird population.  We began our day with the Prince Philip's Steps hike as we were first in line again this morning. (the first hikers, groups 1,2,3 went to the steps while the last three groups hiked at Darwin's Bay. We switched in the afternoon.  Luke is now hurrying Grandma! He has his routine down now and enters the diembarkation room with his life jacket on, camera in hand, immediately goes to the board and moves our magnets and is the first to board the zodiac. After landing we were treated to the largest populations of Red-footed boobies in the world.  This species nests in the low shrub like trees as opposed to the other two booby species that nest on the ground or on the cliff walls.  We were also treated with 4 separate Galapagos short-eared owl sightings. These early morning hikes are always an adventure with lovely ocean vistas.

A sampling of the vegetation on top of Genovesa Is.

The Short-eared Owl is diurnal and we witnessed a hunting owl farther up the trail

Red-footed Booby

Nasca Booby feet

Nazca Booby, yellow bill

Galapagos Dove

Red-footed booby chick, notice his extra nictitating eye lid

The lava flow on top of Genovesa appeared to be a favorite hunting ground for the owls

This owl caught a storm petrel while we were watching.

There is an owl in the foreground of this photo, lower left. They blend in perfectly with the lava

Luke and two Nazca boobies

Mockingbirds were seen on every island

A Frigate bird chick

The owls will often follow petrels into these openings in the lava 

The deep water snorkel was a good one, maybe not as productive as Sombrero Chino, but the visibility was pretty good.  Jason had told us yesterday that often the waters are not as clear here.  We saw sea lions as well as fur seals.  The water seemed just as warm as yesterday, meaning it was cold but not frigid! Perhaps we have learned how to layer over the week..

Fur seals

The beautiful Moorish Idol

A Guinea Fowl Puffer Fish

Our afternoon included another kayak outing which proved to be an upper arm workout because the wind picked up quite a bit.  We actually were dropped off at the Prince Phillip's Steps and paddled all the way back to the Endeavor. I had to paddle so much I didn't get too many pics but we had a great time as always.

Paddling along the cliffs of the caldera

Swallow-tailed Gulls

The cliffs were filled with nesting Red-billed Tropic birds, a beautiful bird to see in flight, I tried and tried to capture them in the air without success.

This is the only pic I got of the Tropic bird.

Frigate bird chicks

Our destination is that ship in the distance

The finish line is in sight.

Our afternoon hike was a wet landing at Darwin's Bay.  We are actually inside a large caldera or crater of a volcano that is now filled with water.  Some of the following photos from our hike will give you an idea of the enormity of the caldera. It was also interesting to see how different each side of the caldera was geologically. This morning was much dryer, less vegetation and worn lava on top. Darwin's Bay had much more vegetation, a sand beach and lava rocks that we had to navigate to get to the top.

This rim of the caldera appears to have more vegetation, Prickly pear cacti line the ravines.

The beach is beautiful but soon becomes a jumble of lava rock

The lower altitude sounded like a bird nursery. Here a red-footed juvenile waits for dinner, His parents must catch a meal and then fly the gauntlet of pirating frigate birds that will attempt to steal from them for their own young, before this little guy will get fed.

As we hike, we leave the beach behind.

A juvenile swallow-tail gull

An adult swallow-tail gull

More prickly pear cactus

Our last hike and still smiling!

Juvenile frigate bird

Here you can get an idea of the edges of the caldera with the Endeavor sitting in the middle. It's like a large round bowl filled with water that comes in from the collapsed side not visible on the right.  Only recently has it been possible to get a ship over the shallows to enter the caldera. The Endeavor is only one of a few the National Park allows to enter.

The frigate adult feeding her young (huge) chick

The red-footed booby chicks stay close to their nest.  Once they leave the parents never come back with food! Parents out there, maybe that is the secret. Once your kids move out...don't go home with food!

One of my favorite photos. You should be able to identify this juvenile frigate bird by now.

Young swallow-tail gulls practicing their fishing skills in one of the pools. 

Frigate juveniles still in the nest, same below.

You can just glimpse the sand beach in the distance that changes into lava rock as we approach the summit.

I love this photo of Luke with Ximena. We are at the pinnacle and Luke looks so happy. Several days ago when we reached a most beautiful vista Enrique made us take a full minute of silence to soak in the beauty of his islands. Luke asked me later why we did that.  Today I think he got it!

This is what we were enjoying. 

The rest of these pics are ones that Luke took.

I think this is a great place to end this post.  Tomorrow I will include the festivities from our last evening on board the Endeavor and our Saturday on the mainland of Ecuador.  Until tomorrow!