Baptized in honor of our first President Juan Jose Flores, Floreana Island was the first capital of Galapagos when the islands were annexed to Ecuador in 1832. Early on and for many years, whalers, pirates, and buccaneers came here for a resupply of water and giant tortoises (for their meat), diminishing the number of those emblematic creatures to near extinction. But, it was after strange disappearances occurred during 1930’s when Floreana became infamous and considered the most mysterious island of the Galapagos.
Our day began early in the morning heading to the greenish landing beach of Punta Cormorant. We observed some sea lions and pelicans along the beach and at the end of the beach, and blue-footed boobies began their traditional courtship dances, interrupting the quiet of this place with their unmistakable calls. Walking behind the beach, the brackish lagoon looked crystalline with some flamingos and stilts feeding on crustaceans, while on the bushes finches fluttered as indicating the arrival of rainfall. We finally arrived at the second beach, the white color there contrasting with the first one. Our surprise was immense when we found a female green sea turtle nesting, digging a very deep hole to lay her eggs. Of course, it was late for her, because they normally finish this backbreaking work just before sunrise.
After breakfast, we headed to Champion Islet with the mission to find the elusive Floreana mockingbird, who found its last refugee along satellites islets after fighting the introduced animals on Floreana Island. We found some of them fluttering among the cacti or on the rocks, while along the cliffs red-billed tropic birds, swallow-tailed gulls, and terns roosted on the brown rocks. Afterwards, we came back to the islet to discover the incredible undersea world. We snorkeled with sea lions, white-tipped reef sharks, and a great number of tropical fish such as surgeon fish, salemas, king angel fish, and creole fish.
After lunch, the National Geographic Islander was repositioned in front of Post Office Bay, where we disembarked to visit the old barrel, which was used as a mailing system long time ago. After exchanging some postcards to hand-deliver them, simulating ancient visitors, we started a beautiful Zodiac ride and some kayaking along the coast of Floreana. We observed a great number of sea turtles in the water and along the shallows, and baby sea lions were the delight of our guests. It was almost six o’clock when we headed back to the National Geographic Islander, looking back to see the clouds covered the highlands, shrouding the island in a halo of mystery, whereby Floreana is well-known and famous.
