Floreana Island
We reached Floreana Island very early in the morning. The numerous extinct volcanic cones were covered partially with clouds and the island itself looked mysterious.
Our day started with a pre-breakfast wet landing at the green, olivine sand beach of Punta Cormorant. This site has many things to offer: a brackish lagoon where flamingos can often be seen, along with other shore birds; unique native and endemic vegetation; a second beautiful beach of incredibly fine, white, coralline sand that is a favorite nesting site for green sea turtles; and a colorful human history that goes back almost two centuries.
Back aboard for breakfast, our ship repositioned to a small offshore volcanic cone named Champion Islet. Immediately we went in our Zodiacs to explore this tiny islet where a small population of the Floreana mockingbird—which was driven to extinction by cats, rats and other introduced predators on the main island—still exists. The islet’s rocky shores showed us many other species such as red-billed tropicbirds nesting, swallow-tailed gulls, brown noddy terns, Galápagos shearwaters and, of course, the always-charming sea lions.
But the underwater cliffs had much more to offer for the deep-water snorkelers, who encountered hundreds, if not thousands, of colorful fish species, such as creoles, Panamic sergeant majors, giant damselfish, brown cromis, black-striped salemas, and yellow-tailed razors, as well as two different species of sharks (the white-tipped reef and the Galápagos shark), different species of sea stars, coral, sponges and anemones. Visibility was great and perhaps this was the best snorkel ever for many guests.
Back on board, we warmed up with a hot chocolate and once more, we lifted anchor, then spent the afternoon exploring Post Office Bay, where a post office barrel was placed by whalers back in 1793, and is still used for sending letters by visitors from all over the world.
This outing ended with a zodiac and kayak exploration of the bay and neighboring sea lion colony where we had the chance to see our famous Galápagos penguins for the first, but hopefully not the last, time this week.
