Floreana Island
We arrived to Floreana in the peaceful early hours as a new day dawned. After dropping anchor in Post Office Bay, we disembarked to follow an ancient whaler’s tradition. Beginning in the late 1700’s, sailors would leave letters in an old wine barrel that had been left here by a whale boat Captain. Later on, these letters were picked up by passing homeward bound ships and taken to their destinations, where they were delivered by hand. We continued with this tradition and just like those early sailors, we picked up letters and postcards with the promise to hand deliver them, and left some of our own there.
We returned aboard and navigated towards Champion Islet. This old, small volcano is home for several species of birds. Among those, we found one of the rarest in the world which is the Floreana mockingbird. From our Zodiacs, we saw several blue footed boobies, Galápagos shearwaters, Galápagos sea lions, swallow-tailed gulls, and red billed tropic birds.
After we returned from this amazing coastal exploration, we got our snorkeling gear on and went in the water around Champion Islet, perhaps one of the best places to observe large schools of fish of all colors and kinds. We swam with sea lions and white tipped reef sharks.
This afternoon after a short calm navigation, we arrived to Punta Cormorant. Kayakers paddled along the coast of a gorgeous bay. We encountered sea lions, turtles, and a penguin and enjoyed the peaceful silence of this place. Soon after we returned from kayaking, we went on shore and walked along the edge of a brackish water lagoon where we had a wonderful view of two flamingos that approached us closely. They fed, with side to side passes of their beaks, while we watched them in silence.
We left the lagoon and hiked on to the “flour beach” where several green sea turtles were trying to mate in the shallows. This beach has an incredible number of sea turtle nests; flying above our heads we saw a lonely frigate bird looking for turtle hatchlings.
We returned to the ship as the sun set in the west with amazing colors. To the east, simultaneously, we watched the most beautiful full moon rising over “Devil’s crown.” Lynn, our expedition leader, informed us that this was the largest full moon that we have seen all year, because tonight the moon is as close at is will get to our home planet!
We arrived to Floreana in the peaceful early hours as a new day dawned. After dropping anchor in Post Office Bay, we disembarked to follow an ancient whaler’s tradition. Beginning in the late 1700’s, sailors would leave letters in an old wine barrel that had been left here by a whale boat Captain. Later on, these letters were picked up by passing homeward bound ships and taken to their destinations, where they were delivered by hand. We continued with this tradition and just like those early sailors, we picked up letters and postcards with the promise to hand deliver them, and left some of our own there.
We returned aboard and navigated towards Champion Islet. This old, small volcano is home for several species of birds. Among those, we found one of the rarest in the world which is the Floreana mockingbird. From our Zodiacs, we saw several blue footed boobies, Galápagos shearwaters, Galápagos sea lions, swallow-tailed gulls, and red billed tropic birds.
After we returned from this amazing coastal exploration, we got our snorkeling gear on and went in the water around Champion Islet, perhaps one of the best places to observe large schools of fish of all colors and kinds. We swam with sea lions and white tipped reef sharks.
This afternoon after a short calm navigation, we arrived to Punta Cormorant. Kayakers paddled along the coast of a gorgeous bay. We encountered sea lions, turtles, and a penguin and enjoyed the peaceful silence of this place. Soon after we returned from kayaking, we went on shore and walked along the edge of a brackish water lagoon where we had a wonderful view of two flamingos that approached us closely. They fed, with side to side passes of their beaks, while we watched them in silence.
We left the lagoon and hiked on to the “flour beach” where several green sea turtles were trying to mate in the shallows. This beach has an incredible number of sea turtle nests; flying above our heads we saw a lonely frigate bird looking for turtle hatchlings.
We returned to the ship as the sun set in the west with amazing colors. To the east, simultaneously, we watched the most beautiful full moon rising over “Devil’s crown.” Lynn, our expedition leader, informed us that this was the largest full moon that we have seen all year, because tonight the moon is as close at is will get to our home planet!
