Located near the center of the archipelago, Santiago is one of the largest islands in the Galapagos. The island has many features that make it one of our favorites, including the landscape and unique assemblage of species. Today we explored two sites. In the morning, we visited Chinese Hat, and we explored Sullivan Bay in the afternoon. Both places are outstanding and unique. We definitely had one of the best days of our expedition.
6/3/2023
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National Geographic Islander II
Genovesa Island
Today we awoke at Darwin´s Bay near Genovesa Island. This collapsed caldera is a unique place where thousands of sea birds can be observed in different life stages. We disembarked in the morning for a natural history walk at Darwin´s Bay beach where we had a close look of the red-footed booby, one of the three species of boobies that nest in the Galapagos. We also observed Nazca boobies, frigatebirds, swallow-tailed gulls, and lava gulls. We also had the opportunity to snorkel with Galapagos fur seals, the second species of sea lion seen during this trip. In the afternoon, we went for a hike to Prince Phillip´s Steps. We were lucky to spot the short-eared owl, a typically nocturnal species that became diurnal on this island because of the absence of its competitor, the Galapagos hawk. We finished the last full day of the expedition celebrating with a toast onboard National Geographic Islander II .
