Gentle Genovesa and Blistering Booze (prices)

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We awoke to find ourselves in beautiful Darwin Bay, on Genovesa Island, then transferred by Panga to Darwin beach for a hike round Genovesa which is mainly volcanic lava fields with dried up trees, some lagoons, and a beautiful beach, populated by sea lions, Marine Iguanas, and dozens of species of birds, many nesting on the ground shrub on the beach. These animals and birds have not learned to be afraid of humans, as the islands were totally uninhabited until relatively recently, and are 600 miles from the Ecuador coast. I could not believe that we could walk right up to them, including ground nesting birds, and they didn't flinch. In fact we had to be very careful not to stand on them at times! In the afternoon we snorkelled off the boat at El Barranco, and saw sea lions and many highly coloured fish. White tipped reef Sharks were seen by some other members of our group. Later we took to the ribs again, for further exploration. After a slow crawl past the cliffs lining the crater which forms Darwin bay, we climbed Prince Philips Steps, carved into the steep cliff, and walked across the higher part of the island above the sea cliffs. Blue footed Boobies, Red Billed Tropic Birds, Galapagos gulls, finches, a mocking bird, and dozens of huddling marine iguanas, etc were seen. Returned after very full day for another wonderful dinner, and an early night as rough weather was forecast again for our overnight voyage back South to Bartolome Island, again recrossing the Equator. This proved to be an even bouncier voyage than the previous night, but we were so tired that sleep was not too difficult, assisted no doubt by a few Cabernet Sauvignons over dinner. Incidentally, wine is very expensive here ($40 /bottle) as, although they started making their own wine a few years ago, the vines have not matured enough yet to produce much decent wine. So most is imported from Argentina, Chile, Spain and Portugal. Small bottles of beer at $5 and a Whisky at $9, made us appreciate our local watering hole back home. The filtered drinking water was free, however. And you're point is what?

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Photos

Adrianna
Our CEO guide