February 4, Saturday – Galapagos, Ecuador – Genovesa Island

Today we are anchored in Darwin Bay on the island of Genovesa, one of the northern most islands.  In getting here we crossed the Equator in the middle of the night.  When you cross the equator on a boat you become a Shell Back…so we are now officially Shell Backs and not Pollywogs (those who haven’t made the crossing).  In commemoration we were given little pins.

Genovesa is a crescent shaped island with the large bay being the caldera of the volcano that formed the island.  This morning we took the Zodiacs out to lovely little beach for a short walk at the base of the cliffs. 

There were even skeletal remains of a small whale that had washed up on the beach a number of years ago.

There were a lot of cacti...

including a species with hairy like thorns.

We saw a lot of our old friends:

Sea Lions

and dozens of Magnificent Frigates circling in the sky above the cliffs...

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and many more roosting in the brush.

We even saw a male in the distance working on his bright red gular sac fully inflated to try to attract a female.  

and saw another male much closer with his sac not so inflated.

We also saw Swallow Tailed Gulls

Including some that were nesting.

Nazca Boobies

and a Brown Pelican

The newest additions to our species are:

The Franklin gull (a migratory bird just passing through)

And the Red Footed Boobie, our third boobie species. 

Including a baby.

Sometimes the people watching is almost as fun as watching the wildlife.

In the afternoon Paul stayed on the boat while Mary took a Zodiac ride around the rim of caldera where she saw a dolphin mother and baby

A flock of Shearwaters

More Marine Iguanas

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And fur seals (our first sighting).

This evening we watched a slide show made up of pictures submitted by many of the guests on the ship.  There were some pretty awesome images.