When the sun finally rose above the horizon, the National Geographic Endeavour II was sailing into an enormous bay. We were surrounded by Genovesa Island, and afloat the waters of Darwin’s Bay. Jokingly called at times “Hitchcock’s Island”, this magnificent island has the world’s largest population of red-footed boobies. Alongside come colonies of great frigate birds, swallow-tailed gulls, lava gulls, large ground finches, large cactus finches, sharp-beaked finches and warbler finches.
Throughout the morning we explored both visitor sites established by the Galapagos National Park service. One set of guests rode off across the bay to Prince Philip’s Steps. This is a fissure in the inside cliff wall where using a bit of concrete and wooden hand rails, the Park has given us access to ascend to the top. Tilted slabs of old lava, a forest of Palo Santa trees, and the calls of Nazca boobies, red-footed boobies and the musky smell of storm petrel said it all.
The others landed close to the ship at Darwin Bay…a landing on a coralline beach, and a trail that remained level, sandy and followed the bush edge where one had to be careful not to step onto gull nests. Eggs the same mottled color as the coral sand lay disguised; nests of frigate birds and red-footed boobies competed for the strongest branches.
We had made our landing before breakfast to take advantage of the fresher part of the day. By the time breakfast was finished, the sun was high and the air hot and muggy. Deep-water snorkelers set off across the bay in a new direction, and learned both good news and bad news: The water was not as clear as we have had up to now (the bad news), but the presence of hammerhead sharks was over-the-top magnificent (the good news!).
Kayakers had a smooth paddle along the base of the cliff – effortless, truth be told. The wing-tips of mobula rays broke the surface of the water throughout the day….what else was down there? After lunch we managed to slip two more rounds of paddle boarding into the day’s program …how fabulous was THAT! Perfectly calm water, noisy sea birds all around, and the thought of all that marine life underneath…
The rest of the afternoon was spent on land once more, and by the time the day had ended, practically everyone had seen a short-eared owl as well! They feed on small seabirds, nesting under the thin sheet of lava over at Prince Philip’s Steps. Diurnal, our chances of spotting them is best during the day when their favorite prey is at home – the endemic Galapagos storm petrel. And indeed we did see them – some folks even saw them feeding on petrel!
By the time the sun had set, we were sailing out of the bay, on our way south. A grand premiere showing of our slideshow had everyone seated together in the lounge, drink in hand, re-living some of these incredible moments. As someone once said to me, “we came for a week, it felt like a month, but went like a day.”
It has been a wonderful week – sounds mundane – but it’s not. The dynamics of the wildlife, weather and fellow travel companions made this trip uniquely memorable in many ways.
