Guests onboard the National Geographic Endeavour II spent the day exploring Floreana Island and its neighboring islet, Champion. We began the day with an early morning walk at Punta Cormorant. Guests interested in photography accompanied our photo instructor, Juan Carlos Avila. At this site, guests observed the American flamingo. After breakfast, we disembarked for a Zodiac cruise around Champion Islet in search of the exceedingly rare Floreana mockingbird. Our snorkeling excursion at Champion was excellent. Guests swam with juvenile Galapagos sea lions and many species of tropical fishes, including schools of the beautiful king angel fish.
In the afternoon, guests had the opportunity to participate in various excursion around Baroness Bay, including kayaking and stand up paddle-boarding. We were pleasantly surprised when a flock of flamingos appeared right at the shoreline. There were 11 individuals, including a smaller juvenile. Guests also observed the yellow morphotype of the Pacific green sea turtle, a juvenile black-tipped reef shark, and a diamond stingray. After the outing, we travelled directly to the beach to the Post Office Barrel. Guests learned about the fascinating human history of this mysterious island and, as the tradition goes, deposited their post cards into the barrel to be hand delivered to them at their homes; some guests even picked up some post cards to deliver themselves.
