When you visit Floreana Island you are traveling in time… While walking along the shores of the island you can imagine the first visitors, walking among the dry vegetation, looking for giant tortoises and some fresh water. Buccaneers, pirates, adventurers and other characters stopped by Galapagos in the 1700s and 1800s. These visitors stopped, especially on Floreana, because of its well hidden treasure: fresh water.
You can imagine the first inhabitant of the islands: the Irish sailor Patrick Watkins, trying to survive in this hostile environment. You can imagine the whalers from the 1800s, trying to find a way to communicate to their families after years at sea! But you can live the present too, learning about the conservation programs happening on the Island at the moment: the efforts to restore the population of Floreana mockingbirds, the programs to eradicate introduced species. And finally you can imagine a future too… a future where people can live in harmony with nature. Floreana is a mixture of history, nature and conservation efforts…
We started our day early, at 6:30 a.m. we disembarked on Punta Cormorant. We crossed a small peninsula to a white coralline beach. Along the way we found some blue footed boobies performing their courtship dance and we were able to spot some flamingos in the distance. At the white beach we could observe many sea turtle nests, but as we walked we saw suddenly some sand being removed…we walked closer…wow! It was 7:30 a.m. and we found a sea turtle still outside of the water finishing its nest! We sat on the sand and observed this amazing creature finishing with the hard job and then slowly coming back to the water. This was just the beginning of the day!
We moved our ship to a little islet in the surroundings, Champion Islet, where we went looking to the elusive Floreana mockingbird. Few individuals of this species survive in the wild, but we were able to find a couple, and with them we had already seen three of the four species of mockingbirds in Galapagos!
Snorkeling was a highlight! The visibility couldn’t be better! Champion is home of thousands of fish, including sharks, rays, and several colonies of sea lions. All came to join us!
At lunch time we were recovering our energies when we heard the exciting word: whales! From our dining room we were able to spot some fins coming out of the water. We ran to the outside decks to discover a group of killer whales! Our officers did a wonderful job turning the ship back so we could enjoy this whale watching.
Okay! It was time for a little siesta. We continued the afternoon with an informative and entertaining talk about Charles Darwin and then a visit to the Post Office Barrel, maybe the oldest post office system in the Pacific! We became part of this tradition by taking some postcards with us; these letters had been left here by other visitors days or weeks ago, and now we will hand deliver them in their destination. We left our postcards so future visitors can do the same.
The day ended with an amazing sunset observed from our Zodiacs while we went for a Zodiac ride along the “Baroness Bay.” White tipped reef sharks, Green sea turtles and Great Blue Herons came to our encounter to say good night! Sea lions made us smile once more before we go to rest, to get our energy back for our next adventure!
