Floreana Island is a special place to see some of the more rare species of flora and fauna in the Galapagos National Park. To maximize our 12 hours of daylight here on the equator, our wake-up call came at 5:30am with a 6am landing on a reddish sandy beach of Punta Cormorant. Besides a few lounging sea lions on the beach, our first wildlife sighting was a flock of five pink flamingos gliding in for a landing on a large estuary a short distance away. At the end of a tunnel of trees, the scene opened up to a spectacular eye level sight of approximately 80 pink flamingos feeding in a shallow estuary framed below the backdrop of a stark volcanic landscape. The trail then climbed up to a higher vantage point that offered one of the quintessential panoramic views of the Galapagos, with flamingos as far as the eye could see. A short distance away was a long lonely white sand beach, very different in geology and texture compared to our landing site. It was impossible not to notice the hundreds of baby turtle tracks covering the white sand dunes above the high tide mark, and a few large female sea turtle that left definitive tracks as they were heading back to ocean after laying eggs last night. What a productive morning, all before 8am when we departed from beach and headed back to the ship.
Champion Islet was our next destination, a short distance away, where we circled this small island, observing the critically endangered Floreana mockingbird that is extinct on the main island due to introduced predators. After covering the terrestrial fauna, we donned our snorkeling gear and entered the clear 78-degree water with the friendly sea lions that effortlessly swim circles around us.
Next stop was Post Office Bay; the most historic destination in the Galapagos, used by the whalers over two hundred years ago as a place to exchange mail. This is also one of the few destinations that Charles Darwin spent time on during his celebrated voyage on the MS Beagle. As tradition holds, our naturalists read off a list of addresses from previously deposited postcards from the post office barrel in the hope that our guests will hand deliver the parcel to the proper destination. Many post cards were handed out among our group, and just as many deposited for other people to optimistically deliver in the future. We capped off the evening with zodiac cruises watching wildlife as the sun set on another perfect day in the Galapagos.
