Genovesa Island - Friday - Part I

A visit to Genovesa Island is a treat. Only half the Lindblad trips visit this place since visits are restricted by law. For Lindblad, their trips alternate weeks running clockwise or counterclockwise. We lucked out.

During the night we crossed the equator. We are now in the Northern Hemisphere, but not for long. This evening we cross back.

Also by law, our group must split between the two landings. We elect to take the wet landing to the beach at Darwin Bay in the morning. The highlight of this event is nesting and mating red footed boobies and nesting and mating frigate birds.

The red footed booby and frigate bird co-existing during mating season.

Every island has a welcoming committee of sea lions.

This is the male frigate bird advertising for a mate. It takes them nearly a half hour to inflate the pouch. It must be mating season given the number of inflated red pouches we see throughout the day.

Red footed booby.

It is rare to find a red footed booby walking in the clear. The group swoops around to take pictures. 

Wait! Wait! Some in our group believe we have, in the spirit of Darwin, found a new species of blue footed booby!

In the early history of the islands, sailors communicated with other ships by leaving graffiti on the cliffs. Some naturalists wanted in taken off. Historians carried the day so on the island one can still view the communication of ancient sailing vessels as they made landfall on the island.