Floreana Island
This was a very exciting day on Floreana Island, which has been visited for many years, since the days of pirates, buccaneers, whalers. In the 1830’s, Ecuador sent the first settlements to colonize this island.
Somewhere in the late 1700’s a barrel was placed to help whalers send and receive their mail trough a system of hand delivering all the letters that got to this barrel. Another good reason to come to this island is the Galápagos giant tortoises, as well as the presence of fresh water found only in the highlands. This water is product of garua (mist) which has condensed on the mosses that hang on some trees.
We began our day following the same whaling tradition. We went early in the morning to collect some letters and postcards and to deliver some of our own into the barrel. We complemented our visit with a Zodiac cruise around Loberia which holds a very healthy and large colony of Galápagos sea lions. They were so active, especially the males that were barking as they went back and forth in their territories. A couple of them confronted each other and a fight almost broke out, while many females looked on while nursing their pups. Many blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, and some migratory birds were also spotted, as well as a black-bellied plover and a sanderling feeding along the shore.
We returned to the ship for a very delicious breakfast during which we sailed towards Champion islet where many different options awaited us. Some went snorkeling, others went on the glass bottom boat where milliard fishes were observed, as well as Pacific green sea turtles, a small group of scorpion fish resting on rocks, some sea lions and incredible sea stars, sea cucumbers, and white coral. This was, without a doubt, a wonderful place to have sea activities for everyone.
After our Ecuadorian typical lunch we went ashore and in our way to Punta Cormorant we found a couple of Pacific green sea turtles mating while another male hang around this couple perhaps wanted to mate with the same female, we observed them disappear under the warm waters while some red billed tropic birds flew above us, one of them was particularly very friendly and as you can see here it was so close that was not a problem for us to take its picture.
We found lots of flamingos in the lagoon and some chicks were fed by their parents right in front of our eyes, some others were starting to nest on the rocks surrounded by Bahamas pintail ducks, and black necked common stilts.
We returned to the ship for our evening recap with a warm felling of happiness in our hearts.
This was a very exciting day on Floreana Island, which has been visited for many years, since the days of pirates, buccaneers, whalers. In the 1830’s, Ecuador sent the first settlements to colonize this island.
Somewhere in the late 1700’s a barrel was placed to help whalers send and receive their mail trough a system of hand delivering all the letters that got to this barrel. Another good reason to come to this island is the Galápagos giant tortoises, as well as the presence of fresh water found only in the highlands. This water is product of garua (mist) which has condensed on the mosses that hang on some trees.
We began our day following the same whaling tradition. We went early in the morning to collect some letters and postcards and to deliver some of our own into the barrel. We complemented our visit with a Zodiac cruise around Loberia which holds a very healthy and large colony of Galápagos sea lions. They were so active, especially the males that were barking as they went back and forth in their territories. A couple of them confronted each other and a fight almost broke out, while many females looked on while nursing their pups. Many blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, and some migratory birds were also spotted, as well as a black-bellied plover and a sanderling feeding along the shore.
We returned to the ship for a very delicious breakfast during which we sailed towards Champion islet where many different options awaited us. Some went snorkeling, others went on the glass bottom boat where milliard fishes were observed, as well as Pacific green sea turtles, a small group of scorpion fish resting on rocks, some sea lions and incredible sea stars, sea cucumbers, and white coral. This was, without a doubt, a wonderful place to have sea activities for everyone.
After our Ecuadorian typical lunch we went ashore and in our way to Punta Cormorant we found a couple of Pacific green sea turtles mating while another male hang around this couple perhaps wanted to mate with the same female, we observed them disappear under the warm waters while some red billed tropic birds flew above us, one of them was particularly very friendly and as you can see here it was so close that was not a problem for us to take its picture.
We found lots of flamingos in the lagoon and some chicks were fed by their parents right in front of our eyes, some others were starting to nest on the rocks surrounded by Bahamas pintail ducks, and black necked common stilts.
We returned to the ship for our evening recap with a warm felling of happiness in our hearts.
