Floreana Island
Working in the Galápagos has been one of the best experiences of my life, if not the best! All my childhood dreams came true once that I set foot on these islands some fifteen years ago. As a kid I never wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer or an accountant; although I respect a lot those professions (because society as we know it could not exist without them) I never saw myself quite fitting in an office with specific working hours.
Instead, I caught myself often dreaming of the endless adventures of pirates or treasure hunters or even exploring the undersea and discovering things that no one has seen before.
Unfortunately, many of those dreams occurred during school time (especially during my math class!) which sometimes cost me more than one reprimand. I guess I turned out all right, because when I graduated as biologist, I was offered a position to become a Galápagos Naturalist!
My experiences in the islands have been many during my last fifteen years, and some of those experiences are what I share now with people who ask me often how is like to be a Naturalist on board of the National Geographic Polaris.
Some of those adventures brought me long ago to the island of Floreana, precisely the place that we visited today. It was here where I heard one of the most bizarre histories that I have ever known and where all the histories of pirates, treasure hunters and much more than what I was asking for, are real.
Once upon a time Floreana was nothing else but just another island within the complex ecosystem that Galápagos is. It was by a stroke of luck that it was chosen to be the location that would hold the dreams of many men. Sailors that were at sea for so long in the early 1790s created the only connection with their families, known as the post office barrel. This wine barrel was located somewhere hidden by the bushy area of a forgotten beach. Nobody would have then imagined that the same beach would later be the place where families from Germany would arrive in the late 1920s with the intention of fulfilling their dreams. Of course, for some that dream was turned in to as held prisoner and murdered, others hunted and disappeared, or became crazy because of your beloved lover ignored you and die mysteriously poisoned, no one fulfil any dream!
To tell you the whole history would be too many pages, and could take you years of long research to fully understand. For our guests travelling on board the National Geographic Polaris during this week, the Island of Floreana will no longer be just an island, but the place where their dreams to play with sea lions and to see flamingos, were the only dreams that the island had ever fulfilled to any human setting foot in this land far, far away from home…
Working in the Galápagos has been one of the best experiences of my life, if not the best! All my childhood dreams came true once that I set foot on these islands some fifteen years ago. As a kid I never wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer or an accountant; although I respect a lot those professions (because society as we know it could not exist without them) I never saw myself quite fitting in an office with specific working hours.
Instead, I caught myself often dreaming of the endless adventures of pirates or treasure hunters or even exploring the undersea and discovering things that no one has seen before.
Unfortunately, many of those dreams occurred during school time (especially during my math class!) which sometimes cost me more than one reprimand. I guess I turned out all right, because when I graduated as biologist, I was offered a position to become a Galápagos Naturalist!
My experiences in the islands have been many during my last fifteen years, and some of those experiences are what I share now with people who ask me often how is like to be a Naturalist on board of the National Geographic Polaris.
Some of those adventures brought me long ago to the island of Floreana, precisely the place that we visited today. It was here where I heard one of the most bizarre histories that I have ever known and where all the histories of pirates, treasure hunters and much more than what I was asking for, are real.
Once upon a time Floreana was nothing else but just another island within the complex ecosystem that Galápagos is. It was by a stroke of luck that it was chosen to be the location that would hold the dreams of many men. Sailors that were at sea for so long in the early 1790s created the only connection with their families, known as the post office barrel. This wine barrel was located somewhere hidden by the bushy area of a forgotten beach. Nobody would have then imagined that the same beach would later be the place where families from Germany would arrive in the late 1920s with the intention of fulfilling their dreams. Of course, for some that dream was turned in to as held prisoner and murdered, others hunted and disappeared, or became crazy because of your beloved lover ignored you and die mysteriously poisoned, no one fulfil any dream!
To tell you the whole history would be too many pages, and could take you years of long research to fully understand. For our guests travelling on board the National Geographic Polaris during this week, the Island of Floreana will no longer be just an island, but the place where their dreams to play with sea lions and to see flamingos, were the only dreams that the island had ever fulfilled to any human setting foot in this land far, far away from home…
