Genovesa Island
Great! Awesome! Fantastic! Beautiful! The words that I can use to describe today’s visit are just endless. We started our day with a bright sunny morning, the sky was intense blue, with no clouds at all. Birds were doing whatever was the best for them at the time: gliding, flying, soaring, showing to all of us their beauty and magnificence in the air.
Today we combined two walking outings and one snorkeling session and during those activities we saw some extraordinary species. In terms of bird species, the short-eared owl was our true highlight. All of our guests who did the afternoon walk got to see one owl in action. They witnessed the whole operation of this diurnal bird of prey hunting a wedge-rumped storm petrel. It landed next to the trail with the prey in its beak, and then proceeded to pull its feathers out in front of our guests, only five feet away from them.
In the meantime, some of us went out on the Zodiac cruise, looking for red-billed tropicbirds. We enjoyed also the dramatic cliff formation of the extinct caldera where we were anchored. Almost at the very end of the ride, when we were already making our way back to the ship, we saw one of the largest species of manta rays found in the oceans: the Pacific Manta ray or Devil Manta ray. It was huge, about 12 feet in diameter, almost as big as a Zodiac!
Certainly every one on board has had the chance to end the visit to the Galapagos Islands with a grand finale.
Great! Awesome! Fantastic! Beautiful! The words that I can use to describe today’s visit are just endless. We started our day with a bright sunny morning, the sky was intense blue, with no clouds at all. Birds were doing whatever was the best for them at the time: gliding, flying, soaring, showing to all of us their beauty and magnificence in the air.
Today we combined two walking outings and one snorkeling session and during those activities we saw some extraordinary species. In terms of bird species, the short-eared owl was our true highlight. All of our guests who did the afternoon walk got to see one owl in action. They witnessed the whole operation of this diurnal bird of prey hunting a wedge-rumped storm petrel. It landed next to the trail with the prey in its beak, and then proceeded to pull its feathers out in front of our guests, only five feet away from them.
In the meantime, some of us went out on the Zodiac cruise, looking for red-billed tropicbirds. We enjoyed also the dramatic cliff formation of the extinct caldera where we were anchored. Almost at the very end of the ride, when we were already making our way back to the ship, we saw one of the largest species of manta rays found in the oceans: the Pacific Manta ray or Devil Manta ray. It was huge, about 12 feet in diameter, almost as big as a Zodiac!
Certainly every one on board has had the chance to end the visit to the Galapagos Islands with a grand finale.
