Today was a wonderful day in the Galapagos Islands. We started early morning so we could enjoy the wildlife activity. After a delicious breakfast, we boarded the Zodiacs. Our first landing spot was a very small islet with many surprises. Yellow land iguanas were waiting for us at the landing area. We enjoyed discussing the habitat, behaviors, and interesting facts about the incredible reptiles, and we learned about their ecology. Swallow-tailed gulls were another highlight this morning. We spotted many breeding couples and enjoyed their friendly and tame behavior. We also observed sea lions and tropicbirds on our morning walk, and we enjoyed their sounds and colors. After our walk, we came back to the ship and set sail to a new island, Santa Fe. Our guests explored the island by kayak, and they also enjoyed the opportunity to snorkel. We observed many different species, including blue-footed boobies and playful sea lions, the stars of the show as they played in the water. For the rest of the afternoon, we went exploring by foot on a hike that took us through a prickly pear cactus and palo santo tree forest. Our goal was to find one of the unique species on this island: the Santa Fe land iguana. This species only lives here and is seen nowhere else in the world. The experience was complete after we saw their incredible feeding behavior. They mainly eat cactus on this island. We also observed a big colony of sea lions. They greeted us right at our landing! Finally, fast-moving lava lizards and even a Galapagos hawk were added to our list of wonders today!
3/11/2023
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National Geographic Islander II
Genovesa Island
Today, National Geographic Islander II anchored in the bay at Genovesa Island, located in the northeastern corner of the archipelago. Our excursion in the morning was to Darwin Bay Beach, and we found big colonies of nesting red-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, and swallow-tailed gulls. After visiting this beautiful bay, we returned to the ship to prepare for snorkeling activities. Some of the guests decided to go kayaking, and others relaxed on the beach. My group snorkeled from a Zodiac by the cliffs of this island. We found hammerhead sharks, various species of reef fish, golden cow rays, turtles, and other great wildlife. This was definitely a wonderful way to finish our time in the water here in the Galapagos. Later in the afternoon, we took a nature walk inland. We found more nesting boobies and mockingbirds. We observed great frigatebird males with their gular pouches inflated to court females. During the second part of the walk, the highlight was a short-eared owl flying around before it seemed to pose for pictures. During sunset, our captain raised a toast to our great time on board together.