Floreana Island
An early wake-up with a beautiful sunrise was followed by a moderate-paced walk on an easy trail that goes right through a brackish water lagoon, which is home to a few kinds of birds. One of them is the greater flamingo, with gorgeous pink feathers as a result of feeding on microscopic shrimp loaded with carotene. We counted a few, along with pintail ducks, black-necked stilts, and some species of migratory birds like sandpipers. We continued our way to a white-sand beach where sea turtles nest year-round.
Our next outing was going snorkeling in one of the most beautiful locations, due to the presence of multiple species of fishes and other creatures; one of them is the playful Galápagos sea lion, which were available to give us the best moments of the session. Sharks also showed up and they are friendly, like most of the animals here.
Around mid-morning and after a short navigation we reached the island of Champion for a zodiac ride to look for sea lions, boobies, shearwaters and red-billed tropicbirds, among others. But the one that deserved more attention was a kind of mockingbird that became extinct on the main island due to cat predation. Only a few survived here on this island; we saw some so we are happy they’re still with us. It was a great morning.
The afternoon had other surprises awaiting all of us. Some decided take the option of combining a zodiac ride around the small island of Floreana in search of wildlife like turtles, rays and birds, and to later do a wet landing and head for a very special old mailing system that consists of writing postcards and leaving them in a barrel. The post office barrel was erected in this place by a whaler named James Colnett in 1793 and was used for communication with home back in those days. All you do is go there, read through the letters and if you see one that goes near to where you live, you just hand-deliver it in the old-fashioned way. That is fun – no stamps needed.
After this we invited the kids to play soccer at a sandy field behind the beach. That was a lot of fun as well. The crew joined in and the game became a friendly match to end this glorious day.
