Galapagos 2009»Darwin Bay - Genovesa

A wet landing brought us onto the beach at Darwin Bay on Genovesa, where a few sea lions were basking in the late afternoon sun. The bird life again was abundant, many of the males engaging in their courtship rituals, the male frigate birds displaying their pouches, red footed boobies trying to entice the female with their gifts of twigs of ever increasing size. Many other birds species were easily spotted including nazcar boobies with their chicks, striated herons, red billed tropicbirds, lava herons, Galapagos doves, night herons, mocking birds, finches to name but a few. Hundreds of birds flew overhead as well as occupying ground space. It was like stepping back into a prehistoric age. The ground was very dry and scorched and sun was intense, despite being late afternoon. After a facinating 40 minute trail, we returned to the beach. It was quite a relief to venture into the cool ocean for another snorkeling activity and just when we thought our adventure could not get any better we were delighted to catch sight of a group of six white tipped basking sharks only a few feet beneath us. We also saw parrot fish and stingrays as we swam back to the beach. As we dried out in the sun we ended the day's adventures watching the antics of the sea lions on the beach with the birds continuing to fly overhead. A fitting end to another amazing day in the Galapagos Islands.