Early in the morning, before breakfast, we disembarked in this unique location called Cormorant Point. The group had the opportunity to observe the recovery of this island, after being almost destroyed by the presence of a large number of introduced species like goats, feral pigs, cats, and dogs.
The Galapagos National Park is doing a severe eradication program to eliminate the large number of these aggressive introduced species, and right now we can observe many native and endemic species slowly but definitely being recovered in this island. The blue footed boobies are coming back to nest in this location, the same as the Floreana daisy and the scalesia villosa, both of them endemic to Island of Floreana.
During this early walk, we visited the famous flamingo lagoon, where we found a large number of these unique, large, beautiful pink birds, the American flamingos. This morning we counted 35 flamingos, some of them were already nesting at the border of the lagoon. The trail took us to a white sandy beach, an important nesting territory for the Pacific green sea turtles. A great blue heron was wandering around the area, looking on top of the nests, searching for baby sea turtles. What an early morning, all of this action before breakfast!
During breakfast, National Geographic Islander navigated to Champion Islet, a little islet close to Floreana Island where the last population of Floreana mockingbirds survive, without contact of any introduced species. We enjoyed a Zodiac ride around this islet and an exuberant deep water snorkeling session full of Galapagos sea lion pups and tropical reef fish, including some white tip reef sharks.
After lunch we disembarked in another destination, Post Office Bay, for an afternoon full of activities. We kept the Post Office tradition alive, delivering some postcards and collecting some of them from this world famous post office barrel. The snorkeling activity from this beach is fantastic. The large number of peaceful adult Pacific green sea turtles make you feel so in tune with nature, it is a wonderful feeling. Kayaking, paddleboarding or just relaxing at the beach were the perfect end for a fantastic day.
There is much hope for Floreana Island, the real "Enchanted Galapagos Island."
