Floreana Island
We had another great early morning outing today to Post Office Bay. Almost everybody took off to land in this historical place. Whalers used to land here too looking for their mail. We visited the post office barrel in Floreana which was placed by an English buccaneer about three hundred years ago.
Post Office Bay has been a very important spot in the South Pacific for sailors since the seventeen hundreds. Our guests left their post cards at the same place whalers used to. Mail will wait there until another visitor will pick it up and hand deliver to its destination…and just like so, the tradition keeps on going.
After this interesting shower of romantic traditional mailing system, we enjoyed a calm and beautiful Zodiac ride around a nearby sea lion colony. Big strong male sea-lions greeted us in their territories, females where nursing their pups and some other young ones were playing around our Zodiac. Frigate birds, pelicans and even penguins showed up this morning as well.
At eight in the morning, back on board a well deserved and nutritious breakfast awaited us; soon afterwards we started off for snorkeling around Champion Islet. Simultaneously we had birdwatchers on a specific outing to search for the Floreana Mocking bird which is only found in this islet.
Right before lunch, the Islander repositions to our next destination near Devil’s Crown and…there she blew! Our second sighting of the week of a mother humpback whale with her calf! We all gathered in the outer decks, and enjoyed their wonderful company for about forty minutes. This was our third day of the week in the company of whales; it has been a spectacular week.
Once anchored at Punta Cormorant, we had lunch and started getting ready, after our siesta for the afternoon’s expeditions. Kayaking was included this time and also a nice and easy walk on Punta Cormorant where we all enjoyed the beautiful and colorful Flamingo colony and learned about the mysterious human history of Floreana. In the beach trail, we all searched for the Floreana emeralds and found the beautiful olivine crystals in the green beach.At the end of the afternoon we had beautiful light for pictures of the flamingoes in their lagoon.
We had another great early morning outing today to Post Office Bay. Almost everybody took off to land in this historical place. Whalers used to land here too looking for their mail. We visited the post office barrel in Floreana which was placed by an English buccaneer about three hundred years ago.
Post Office Bay has been a very important spot in the South Pacific for sailors since the seventeen hundreds. Our guests left their post cards at the same place whalers used to. Mail will wait there until another visitor will pick it up and hand deliver to its destination…and just like so, the tradition keeps on going.
After this interesting shower of romantic traditional mailing system, we enjoyed a calm and beautiful Zodiac ride around a nearby sea lion colony. Big strong male sea-lions greeted us in their territories, females where nursing their pups and some other young ones were playing around our Zodiac. Frigate birds, pelicans and even penguins showed up this morning as well.
At eight in the morning, back on board a well deserved and nutritious breakfast awaited us; soon afterwards we started off for snorkeling around Champion Islet. Simultaneously we had birdwatchers on a specific outing to search for the Floreana Mocking bird which is only found in this islet.
Right before lunch, the Islander repositions to our next destination near Devil’s Crown and…there she blew! Our second sighting of the week of a mother humpback whale with her calf! We all gathered in the outer decks, and enjoyed their wonderful company for about forty minutes. This was our third day of the week in the company of whales; it has been a spectacular week.
Once anchored at Punta Cormorant, we had lunch and started getting ready, after our siesta for the afternoon’s expeditions. Kayaking was included this time and also a nice and easy walk on Punta Cormorant where we all enjoyed the beautiful and colorful Flamingo colony and learned about the mysterious human history of Floreana. In the beach trail, we all searched for the Floreana emeralds and found the beautiful olivine crystals in the green beach.At the end of the afternoon we had beautiful light for pictures of the flamingoes in their lagoon.
