Floreana Island
This morning we awoke to gray skies and raindrops, but by the time we disembarked at 0700 on the crescent beach at Post Office Bay, the rain had stopped. Three green sea turtles had nested here last night; we could see the thrown and piled sand and deep regular tracks down the beach where they had dragged their ponderous bodies and returned to the sea. We took a short walk behind the beach where we found an old wooden barrel and learned from our naturalists about the Galápagos hand delivery mail swap tradition that dates back to the 1790’s. Whalers and sealers would leave their letters in a similar barrel for homeward bound vessels to transport back to their loved ones. We read through the cards and when possible volunteered to take them to the addressee.
While we enjoyed the bountiful breakfast buffet, the Captain navigated a few miles and anchored off Champion Islet to the east of Floreana. We spent the next hour snorkeling among graceful, playful, curious sea lions and observing schools of many colored tropical fish. Some of us spied a shark; most of us spotted blue, green and chocolate chip sea stars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins attached to the rocks below us. The water was warm, the visibility was good and no one was in a hurry; we swam half way around the small island of Champion!
Panga rides in search of the Floreana mockingbird were successful. This rare and endangered mocker is found only on two or three satellite islands off the coast of the large island of Floreana. While we were delighted to find over a dozen of the mockingbirds this morning perched on the Opuntia cactus, sea lions stole the show as they so often do in Galápagos! In a perfectly round, shallow and picturesque bay we found over 50 sea lions floating on their backs with their flippers in the air. They were thermo-regulating, and adjusting their body temperatures using both the water and the absorption of the warm sun’s rays on their bellies and flippers. We snapped countless photos and floated among them on our Zodiacs.
This afternoon we offered two rounds of kayaking. Clouds and a breeze made the kayak outing more comfortable and our guests enjoyed paddling with sea lion and sea turtles. Later we all landed on a greenish olivine beach and walked along a trail that borders a brackish lagoon where we found over 30 bright pink flamingos. They honked like geese, spread their wings to show a jet black patch that is hidden until they fly, and fed with side to side motions of their heads. We learned that it is their diet of brine shrimp that gives them their brilliant pink color, and that they sift the tiny crustaceans from the mud using hair like projections in their mouths.
We hiked over a hill and down to a fine white sand beach that was covered in sea turtle tracks and nest holes. I counted 14 tracks from last night; we are in the peak of the sea turtle nesting season right now. There were about a dozen turtles in the surf, either females waiting for dark to come on shore and lay their eggs, or males patrolling in search of females with whom to mate. As we returned to the landing beach to depart for the ship, we watched black Darwin’s finches, yellow warblers and the endemic tyrant flycatcher flitting in the fresh greenery that has so quickly sprouted forth, since the rains began in late January.
This morning we awoke to gray skies and raindrops, but by the time we disembarked at 0700 on the crescent beach at Post Office Bay, the rain had stopped. Three green sea turtles had nested here last night; we could see the thrown and piled sand and deep regular tracks down the beach where they had dragged their ponderous bodies and returned to the sea. We took a short walk behind the beach where we found an old wooden barrel and learned from our naturalists about the Galápagos hand delivery mail swap tradition that dates back to the 1790’s. Whalers and sealers would leave their letters in a similar barrel for homeward bound vessels to transport back to their loved ones. We read through the cards and when possible volunteered to take them to the addressee.
While we enjoyed the bountiful breakfast buffet, the Captain navigated a few miles and anchored off Champion Islet to the east of Floreana. We spent the next hour snorkeling among graceful, playful, curious sea lions and observing schools of many colored tropical fish. Some of us spied a shark; most of us spotted blue, green and chocolate chip sea stars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins attached to the rocks below us. The water was warm, the visibility was good and no one was in a hurry; we swam half way around the small island of Champion!
Panga rides in search of the Floreana mockingbird were successful. This rare and endangered mocker is found only on two or three satellite islands off the coast of the large island of Floreana. While we were delighted to find over a dozen of the mockingbirds this morning perched on the Opuntia cactus, sea lions stole the show as they so often do in Galápagos! In a perfectly round, shallow and picturesque bay we found over 50 sea lions floating on their backs with their flippers in the air. They were thermo-regulating, and adjusting their body temperatures using both the water and the absorption of the warm sun’s rays on their bellies and flippers. We snapped countless photos and floated among them on our Zodiacs.
This afternoon we offered two rounds of kayaking. Clouds and a breeze made the kayak outing more comfortable and our guests enjoyed paddling with sea lion and sea turtles. Later we all landed on a greenish olivine beach and walked along a trail that borders a brackish lagoon where we found over 30 bright pink flamingos. They honked like geese, spread their wings to show a jet black patch that is hidden until they fly, and fed with side to side motions of their heads. We learned that it is their diet of brine shrimp that gives them their brilliant pink color, and that they sift the tiny crustaceans from the mud using hair like projections in their mouths.
We hiked over a hill and down to a fine white sand beach that was covered in sea turtle tracks and nest holes. I counted 14 tracks from last night; we are in the peak of the sea turtle nesting season right now. There were about a dozen turtles in the surf, either females waiting for dark to come on shore and lay their eggs, or males patrolling in search of females with whom to mate. As we returned to the landing beach to depart for the ship, we watched black Darwin’s finches, yellow warblers and the endemic tyrant flycatcher flitting in the fresh greenery that has so quickly sprouted forth, since the rains began in late January.
