Blogs from Genovesa Island, Galápagos, Ecuador, South America

Well here we go! Dreamed of this trip for years and booked it over a year ago. Because of riots and Martial law, which settled only a week or so before we were due to depart, and GAdventures cancelling all Ecuador trips, we didn't know if we could go until only 3 days before our departure date. The indigenous population had invaded Quito in their thousands and blocked every road into, and within the city, and threatened to burn the parliament building, causing the entire parliament to flee to Guayancil. There were many injuries and a few fatalities due mainly to the heavy handedness of the police, following declaration of State of Emergency and imposition of curfews. They were protesting about austerity and specifically, the removal of fuel subsidies, brought about by the IMF insistence on ... read more

Our activities today were all on Genovesa Island. Like just about all of the islands of the Galápagos, Genovesa has its Spanish name and also an English name, in this case Tower Island. It is also known informally as Bird Island because of the large number and numerous types of seabirds which nest here and raise their young, and also smaller birds that are restricted to land. Like most of the islands in the Galápagos, it is a shield volcano, although active within historical times. The center is a large caldera with one wall blown out during an eruption so that the island virtually encloses Bahia Darwin (Darwin Bay). We started our day at El Barranco and then Bahia Darwin. El Barranco gave us a prelude of the rest of the entire trip - you are ... read more

Geo: 0.317229, -89.9574Breakfast was a buffet in the dining room as each morning. Then we headed to Genovesa Island. Actually we were anchored inside the caldera of a volcano so we were basically already at the island. We took the zodiac to a cliff wall where we climbed some steps in the cliff wall and climbed to the rim of the volcano. There we saw our first glimpse of boobys. We saw nasca boobies at first and then as we walked along we also got to see red footed boobies. We also saw frigate birds and marine iguanas. Then it was back to the ship for lunch. After lunch we did our white elephant exchange before getting ready to go to our next shore excursion.In the afternoon, we went to a beachy area in the caldera ... read more

Day 10. March 17, 2011: Genovesa, Darwin Bay Genovesa/Prince Phillip's Steps Today we had two landings on Genovesa. Genovesa is a horseshoe shaped island, with a volcanic caldera that collapsed, forming the Great Darwin Bay. On the first landing, we head up Prince Phillips’ steps/El Barranco and are surrounded by frigate birds. Some of the males are just sitting in the trees, while others have their red chests inflated and are competing for a mate. I felt like I was in an exhibit at the zoo, we were so close to so many birds. I think I could have stayed all day and watched the frigates (and I don’t even like birds). We took a walk around part of the island, and there were also very large bushes (like a tree/bush combination), with red footed boobies ... read more