Floreana Island

During our visit to this island, our early morning started with a walk at a site named Punta Cormorant. We disembarked on a beach of olivine sand, where we found some young sea lions and walked along a large salt pond where we observed some shorebirds as well as endemic and native vegetation. Soon we ended up on a second beautiful beach, this one of incredibly fine, white coralline sand, where we had the chance to see a turtle going back to the ocean after laying her eggs.

We returned aboard the National Geographic Endeavour for breakfast and navigated to a small offshore volcanic cone named Champion Islet. The islet’s rocky shores are home to colonies of Galápagos sea lions, many birds nesting on the cliffs, and underwater cliffs swarming with colorful fish species. This is also home to a very small population of the endemic Floreana mockingbird, which was driven to extinction by introduced species like cats, rats and other predators on the main island. With our zodiacs we circumnavigated the islet in the search of this elusive but unique bird. At the end of the zodiac ride we were lucky to spot one of these very rare birds.

The rest of the morning we devoted to deep-water snorkeling, where hundreds of fish were waiting for us. This was “drift snorkeling” for the more experienced, but those with less experience were also able to see the underwater wildlife either snorkeling on the calm side of the bay or through our glass-bottom boat for a much drier option. During the snorkeling outing some of us saw an octopus, trying to hide by changing colors to match the rocky bottom. A marine iguana feeding underwater was also found and several young sea lions gave a show while swimming with us.

Following lunch, we spent the afternoon visiting the famous Post Office Bay where a barrel is still used for an old mail swap tradition going back to whaling days (probably set by British Captain James Colnett in 1793). Hundreds of postcards and letters were found in the barrel and to keep the tradition alive, some of our guests collected and left mail with the hope that someday someone will hand-deliver it.

We finished our expedition on this island by having a zodiac ride along the coast of small islets next to Floreana where we encountered a large colony of Galápagos sea lions, many migratory shorebirds and even had the chance to spot the endemic Galápagos penguins (the third smallest in the world).