Floreana Island
Our exploration of Floreana Island began with an early morning outing by Zodiac to the famous Post Office Bay. It was a lovely morning with flat calm waters reflecting an intriguing sky of sun-rimmed clouds perched over Floreana’s wooded hills. Landing on a soft sand beach, we wandered inland through Palo Verde trees to the site of the Post Office Barrel. This is where sailors from whaling ships once left mail to be picked up by other ships headed back to Europe. As modern travelers following in this time-honored tradition, mail deposited in the barrel by other tourists was handed out to volunteer “carriers” from our group who will deliver those letters or postcards addressed to someone living near their home town.
During breakfast the ship repositioned a short distance around Floreana to anchor near a small offshore islet known as Champion. Here we took to the water either by glass-bottom boat or with mask, snorkel and flippers, to view the underwater world. There were a great variety of fishes in the waters fringing Champion. And, as seabirds flew overhead around us, sea lions flew beneath us and around us in the water. In the late morning there was an opportunity to cruise around Champion searching for the very rare Floreana mockingbird, which has disappeared from the main island of Floreana, but still persists in small numbers on several of these offshore islets surrounding Floreana.
Another short hop by ship brought us to the vicinity of Punta Cormorant where we were able to kayak in the early afternoon, and later to go for a leg-stretching walk back on the main island. Here we visited a wide shallow lagoon where there were colorful flamingos feeding in the briny waters. We hiked over a hill to the other side of an isthmus to a white sand beach. This is a beach where green sea turtles come to lay their eggs, and in the nearshore waters we could see numerous sea turtles swimming in the surf, perhaps waiting for nightfall before coming ashore. On a small outcrop of black lava rock there were dozens of brightly colored Sally Lightfoot crabs being washed by the incoming waves. We made our way back to the landing beach as the western sky turned ruddy with sunset tones signaling the end of another magical day in the Galápagos. After dinner we were treated to a wonderfully entertaining presentation by our Expedition Leader, Paula Tagle, telling us stories of the mysterious human history of Floreana Island.
Our exploration of Floreana Island began with an early morning outing by Zodiac to the famous Post Office Bay. It was a lovely morning with flat calm waters reflecting an intriguing sky of sun-rimmed clouds perched over Floreana’s wooded hills. Landing on a soft sand beach, we wandered inland through Palo Verde trees to the site of the Post Office Barrel. This is where sailors from whaling ships once left mail to be picked up by other ships headed back to Europe. As modern travelers following in this time-honored tradition, mail deposited in the barrel by other tourists was handed out to volunteer “carriers” from our group who will deliver those letters or postcards addressed to someone living near their home town.
During breakfast the ship repositioned a short distance around Floreana to anchor near a small offshore islet known as Champion. Here we took to the water either by glass-bottom boat or with mask, snorkel and flippers, to view the underwater world. There were a great variety of fishes in the waters fringing Champion. And, as seabirds flew overhead around us, sea lions flew beneath us and around us in the water. In the late morning there was an opportunity to cruise around Champion searching for the very rare Floreana mockingbird, which has disappeared from the main island of Floreana, but still persists in small numbers on several of these offshore islets surrounding Floreana.
Another short hop by ship brought us to the vicinity of Punta Cormorant where we were able to kayak in the early afternoon, and later to go for a leg-stretching walk back on the main island. Here we visited a wide shallow lagoon where there were colorful flamingos feeding in the briny waters. We hiked over a hill to the other side of an isthmus to a white sand beach. This is a beach where green sea turtles come to lay their eggs, and in the nearshore waters we could see numerous sea turtles swimming in the surf, perhaps waiting for nightfall before coming ashore. On a small outcrop of black lava rock there were dozens of brightly colored Sally Lightfoot crabs being washed by the incoming waves. We made our way back to the landing beach as the western sky turned ruddy with sunset tones signaling the end of another magical day in the Galápagos. After dinner we were treated to a wonderfully entertaining presentation by our Expedition Leader, Paula Tagle, telling us stories of the mysterious human history of Floreana Island.
