Today we visited Floreana Island which was well visited by buccaneers, pirates, whalers and sailors in search of giant tortoises and fresh water. Charles Darwin himself visited this island and found the Vice Governor of this island, a British man by the last name of Lawsen, while a penal colony was running here in 1635. 

Before breakfast we had a wet landing onto the island and explored deeper, encountering a brackish water lagoon with a large group of Greater flamingos. These pink birds are rare within the islands, but since it’s been raining, we were lucky to spot approximately 37 of them.

After breakfast we had a Zodiac ride along the coast of Champion islet in search of the Floreana mockingbird.  Although it was raining, we were able to spot some flying over the prickly pear cacti. Along the coastline we spotted some blue footed boobies, brown noddies and swallow tailed gulls. We got back to the ship and got ready for snorkeling.  We jumped in the water to enjoy an excellent time with the playful Galapagos sea lions, green sea turtles and several schools of colorful fish.

We set sail again in order to visit Post Office Bay. We had a wet landing to visit the old barrel that served as the oldest mailing system in the Americas, thought to be established in 1873 by Captain James Colnett.  We followed this ancient tradition and dropped postcards in the barrel and picked up some to deliver upon our return back home.

We had our kayaking outing along the coast of Floreana with more interesting sightings.

It was just another great day in the Galapagos!