This morning, the National Geographic Endeavour was greeted by a pod of bottlenose dolphins after sailing through the narrow deep water channel that leads into Darwin Bay at Genovesa Island. As first light announces the beginning of another sunny day with mostly clear skies, some guests disembarked in the company of our photo instructors and naturalists for an early morning photo hike, after an early breakfast.
The news of the pod of dolphins sighted earlier in the morning keeps all looking through the dining room windows, both to take in the scenery of this once magnificent volcano in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the dolphins in the tranquil waters of the bay.
Genovesa, also known as Tower Island, is a very isolated and small speck of land that literally towers above the ocean floor, almost ten thousand feet beneath the waves. As such an isolated place, it is an oasis in the middle of the deep ocean for species of birds like the red footed booby and the swallow tailed gull, that only need to come back to land for mating and rearing of their chicks.
Land birds like the Darwin finches, mockingbirds and doves that inhabit Genovesa appear marooned on this little island. But as we walk through the trails, all of the animals that we find seem busy as always, as new nests are built and older ones are refurbished as the rainy season brings change to the otherwise almost completely dry landscape.
Appearances do not always tell the whole story, and as I wondered if we would get to see the dolphins again, I gazed back onto the landing beach only to realize that an unexpected hominid gazed back. As my colleague Sofia later found out, the humans back at the beach were a group of three scientists studying the bird life on the island.
As our daily plan always remains flexible enough to allow us to enjoy the occasional sighting of whales or a particularly beautiful sunset before our recap sessions, I’m glad that today we were able to make some time for a short presentation from the scientists after we had invited them for lunch onboard our ship.
And yes, the dolphins did put on a show for us as well!
