Floreana Island
Today our Galápagos Islands exploration was at one of the most magical places on this archipelago: Floreana Island. We began the adventure early in the morning at Punta Cormorant. A comfortable wet landing on a green sand beach was one of the attractions of the place. Farther into the trail, we experienced a delightful view of a brackish water lagoon with a greater flamingo that was feeding as it walked from one end to the other. The magnificence of the place was displayed in a magical color combination of incense trees and lecocarpus bushes. Carpenter bees and finches of different sizes played a pleasant symphony of sounds as they were flying from one place to another.
Once we passed the isthmus and reached an organic white sand beach, we were awe-inspired by the Pacific green sea turtles inside the bay. As we came back on board National Geographic Endeavour, it was time to get ready for the next part of the adventure: deep water snorkeling. As we came into the waters of Champion Island, a magical world was shown to us. There were so many reef fish surrounding us that it was very difficult so see the sea floor. We felt like we were inside a natural aquarium. Farther along the cliffs, baby sea lions of different ages started playing with us as if we were welcome in their domain.
The morning exploration continued with a zodiac ride around Champion Island in order to see the elusive Charles mockingbird. As we began the adventure, a wonderful bird paradise was found: brown noddies flying everywhere, Galápagos shearwaters singing and red-billed tropicbirds nesting along the cliffs. Among the vegetation, we finally saw the challenge of the moment: the Charles mockingbird. The surprise at the end of the zodiac ride was given by more than 500 bottlenose dolphins that performed a spectacular show of backflips for us.
In the afternoon, our exploration took us to one of the most historical places of the Galápagos: Post Office Bay. In order to continue with a very old Galápagos tradition, we exchanged post cards from the post office barrel which will be hand delivered by each person back to their homes. Today, the majesty of the Galápagos Islands took our breath away with each of nature’s displays.
