Galápagos: Day 6

Genovesa Island is unlike a lot of the islands we've visited. This island is also called Tower Island because it has sheer cliffs the majority of the way around it.

The island was highly populated by birds. At one point, with the dead looking trees (they lose their leaves in the dry season), Allan said it looked apocalyptic and that only the birds had survived. There were Nazca boobies, red footed boobies, and frigate birds during the first half of the walk. These three birds are nesting so there were a lot of baby birds everywhere in various stages of fluffiness. The red footed boobies have bright red feet and a blue beak and the feathers are either brown or white. The white ones made all the colors stand out a lot more. The Nazca boobies have those bright yellow beaks and there were a lot of fluffy chicks. They nest in the ground unlike the other birds. The frigate bird babies were pretty big, and had orange heads and dark gray feathers (they were a little bit scary).

The second half of the walk, we continued to see the boobies and frigates, but also saw storm petrols, red billed tropic birds, and a short eared owl (Pablo was trying really hard for this one...). The storm petrols fly really fast and reminded me a little bit of bats. The tropic birds were beautifully white with long tail feathers. They were really striking to see fly.

During the second half of the walk, Pablo would stop and get out his binoculars trying to find this little owl that was very good at camouflaging in the landscape and wasn't in its normal hiding and resting places.

We eventually reached the end of the trail and Pablo still held out hope we would see the owl on the way back, despite most of us having given up and were ready to get back to the boat. However, at the very start of the second half of the walk, where we first looked, we checked again and there was the little owl. It was hard to believe the wee thing eats other small birds!

We finished our walk, climbed the steps back down the cliff, and headed back to the boat. On the way we saw a fur seal. They look like little sea bears.

After we got back to the boat it was a pretty quick turnaround to go snorkeling (all that time looking for the owl made us late). Our main goal for our last round of snorkeling: see a hammerhead shark. Our first guide, Yazmani, had been looking for these sharks to no avail, so this would be our last chance.

Because we were further north, we had warmer currents from Panama and this made the water much more pleasant to be in than previous days.

Allan was winding up Johnson again. This time he told Johnson to go hunting for the hammerhead sharks and to let us know when he spotted them. The rest of the boat agreed they’d join when Johnson spotted something. Two minutes, later, what d’you know: Johnson spotted them. He started flapping around, trying to shout “Hammerhead” while simultaneously trying to look at the under the water. Once we realised he wasn’t drowning, it was a rather amusing sight. Johnson couldn’t quite coordinate his excitement and communication, so he was sort of shouting into the water then couching when his face was it. We got the message though.

Allan and I quickly took the plunge, but the shark had swam away by then. We saw the reef fishes and were in a deeper part of the ocean than previously so there were a lot more large fish than other days. Then I saw something big… it was the hammerhead! I popped up to point at it and others saw it too. There was at least 1, maybe 2. It was about 2.5-3 meters long and had a big body and a smaller head. I can't believe I've swam with sharks twice now! We saw the sharks a few times, and once we got to the deeper ocean, it was harder to see things with the sun shining in the water so we got out. Mission accomplished!

We did get a few jellyfish stings, but it was a small price to pay to see the sharks. Allan seemed to get a tentacle wrapped round his neck. He initially thought it was his wet suit/salt water rubbing around his neck, so he took the zip down a bit (away from his neck). However, this didn’t seem to do anything. He said he started getting similar stinging sensations on his hands and that was when he realised it was something else. When we got back to the boat, we all rubbed ourselves down with vinegar! One woman was crying like a little baby. She probably had less stings than everybody else (due to coming out the water first), but she stood there blubbering like a child. It was a little bit embarrassing.

Anyway, we had a special Ecuadorian lunch today. Chef Daniel came out with a huge spread of slow-roasted pork, salads, rice, potato tortilla, and ceviche. The pork was good with the gravy and I really loved the potato with the peanut sauce. It was very impressive what he can produce in that tiny little kitchen on board. We had a small amount of downtime after lunch, but not much before we got ready to go kayaking.

We kayaked along the island looking up at the sheer cliffs. The rock was a lot of different colors and we could see all of the birds on the top that we'd seen earlier. There were also other birds sitting in the cliffs. We saw a few fur seals, but they're not as friendly as the sea lions and like to sleep on rocks. We kayaked from one end of the island all the way back to the boat, which was much farther than I thought! Time seemed to move very quickly though because it hadn't felt like we had been out for over an hour.

The late afternoon/evening activities were going to be pretty calm. We took the dinghy to a small beach nearby (a break in the cliff), and went for a short walk seeing the boobies and frigates nesting in the mangroves. We also saw a lava bird, which is highly endangered, so that was pretty special. The small beach was very peaceful and a nice way to end our last land trip in the Galápagos. I'm really going to miss all of these animals and the beach.

Just like before the others left, we bid farewell to the crew, had dinner, and then spent some time getting things ready to leave tomorrow. I can't believe it's time to say goodbye to this place!Read more