Floreana Island
We woke up at the island of mysteries right after sunrise to visit a very old mail barrel that was left by the whalers; following the tradition, we dropped some postcards and picked up others to be hand delivered upon our return home.
The National Geographic Polaris set sail to Champion islet were some of us went for a glass bottom boat ride or snorkeling. The cold waters of Galápagos received us, together with different kinds of parrot fishes, razor surgeons, king angels, grunts, and even sharks and rays.
Exploring the coast line of Champion, we were in search of the very elusive Charles mockingbird. Due to the presence of many foreign organisms introduced by human beings on Floreana, this mockingbird is only found in a few of its satellite islands. After we spotted the first one, two more showed up by the rocks and even a fourth one who did not hesitate to investigate us.
Once at Punta Cormorant red-billed tropicbirds displayed their beautiful tail in the air and tried to land in the narrow caves of the cliff where they nest; fearless blue-footed boobies saw us passing by with their kayaks and playful sea lions followed, as if they were racing us.
The inland trail leads along a brackish lagoon where greater flamingos peacefully and quietly filter organic ooze with their bills. On the other side of Point Cormorant we found a white coral sandy beach in contrast with the first one where we had landed on, which had been formed by a very fine volcanic ash called tuff mixed with olivine crystals that give it a greenish sparkly tinge.
Here at the coralline beach pacific green sea turtles mate close to the beach, exactly where they hatched years ago. At night they get ready to lay their eggs to be ready to return to the water early in the morning, never to come back and see what happened to their little ones.
We had an activity-full day, yet we are so happy and feel so fortunate for being here. We leave the island wrapped with a mysterious mantle, listening to the birds happily coming back from their daily activities as the sun sets down far into the horizon.
