Floreana Island
In addition to all the natural history, our visit today had an extra flavor from the colorful histories told by our naturalist about the early settlements. It all happened here at Floreana Island back in the early 1920s, when settlers from Germany were looking for a far away land to establish themselves and create a different lifestyle. The tales contain a whole array of characters that one might think they were pulled straight out of an Agatha Christie story, but they are all real!
The mention of Agatha Christie gives away the kind of people they were: spooky! The main characters of one “thriller” (yes, there are unsolved murders involved) are a toothless dentist and his fiancé. Once on the island he pulled her teeth out as well, due poor diet (thou rich in sugar cane) and the two ended up sharing one set of dentures.
Dora, the toothless fiancé became crazy and lonely since her toothless love (Dr. Ritter) ignored her for weeks at a time, so she found companionship with a young donkey who became also her dancing partner (when you see the videos about it, you’ll believe it!)
A second party of German settlers arrived to the island in the late nineteen twenties, and became public enemies with the toothless couple. The second party was formed by three people (wife, husband and adopted son), and a child on the way. They lived for many years in the highlands of Floreana (inside of abandoned pirates’ caves), trying to avoid the other couple, without success. Time would pass and a third party would arrive, adding just a bit more weirdness to the original situation.
The third party was formed of a self-proclaimed “baroness” who later on declared herself the “Empress” of the Island! To make sure her wishes would come true, she traveled under the companionship of three young men whom later history would describe as the rich, the good looking and of course the “latino” lovers!
The "Baroness's" primary goal on the island was, besides making the life of the other two families miserable, the construction of a five star hotel for rich millionaires who would wish to visit her on the island. As for the rest of the history, it is way too good to give it away just like that!
The rest of the day at Floreana was in a sense, just as colorful as my above story, but the main characters have been dolphins bow riding the ship, sea lions playing during our snorkeling outing, lots of birds along the cliffs during our Zodiac cruises, great sightings of turtles during our kayaking outings and of course the walk along a lagoon with flamingoes in it. What else can you ask in one single day…
