Floreana Island
What a wonderful day we had today. Early in the morning we found ourselves over calm Post Office Bay; we are at Floreana Island at the mid-southern part of the Galápagos. We started the day with a traditional mail swapping system that began in the late 1700s. Visitors to the Galápagos Islands keep this system alive. The intention is to find a postcard with an address which can be (and must be) hand delivered; and so there are hundreds of stories of people connecting through this amusing way.
We continued on to our next destination as we had our breakfast and immediately our First mate officer called us by radio for we were greeted by a large pod of bottle-nosed dolphins. The marine mammals approached the ship and all our guests were able to see them. Soon after this exciting sighting we reached Champion islet; the Zodiacs were deployed for an impressive ride spent searching for an illusive bird, the Floreana mockingbird. This bird species has become a rare and difficult bird to find for many devoted ornithologists; today we succeeded by far for we saw several of them.
Back on board for lunch we repositioned to Punta Cormorant, home of the greater flamingoes. A couple of kayak outings and beach time for our guests were the first activities of the afternoon. Oh boy did we have a blast! Our younger guests just had an impressive display of energy as they played and swung almost none stop bringing joy to all of us, this was just wonderful! After these water activities we reunited on the beach to start our walk. We went to a large brackish water lagoon which is the perfect environment for small crustaceans. Greater flamingoes are in constant search of this vital meal. Our walk also took us to a white sand beach where silence resides. This beach gave us the extraordinary opportunity to embrace calmness and isolation as many of us just simply sat and felt this magnificence of the Galápagos. Back onboard the National Geographic Islander as the sun set, many of our guests realized that we had reached the pinnacle of our expedition. We became a family with each other and with Nature. Tomorrow is our last full day and we will squeeze it to the fullest as our journey continues.
What a wonderful day we had today. Early in the morning we found ourselves over calm Post Office Bay; we are at Floreana Island at the mid-southern part of the Galápagos. We started the day with a traditional mail swapping system that began in the late 1700s. Visitors to the Galápagos Islands keep this system alive. The intention is to find a postcard with an address which can be (and must be) hand delivered; and so there are hundreds of stories of people connecting through this amusing way.
We continued on to our next destination as we had our breakfast and immediately our First mate officer called us by radio for we were greeted by a large pod of bottle-nosed dolphins. The marine mammals approached the ship and all our guests were able to see them. Soon after this exciting sighting we reached Champion islet; the Zodiacs were deployed for an impressive ride spent searching for an illusive bird, the Floreana mockingbird. This bird species has become a rare and difficult bird to find for many devoted ornithologists; today we succeeded by far for we saw several of them.
Back on board for lunch we repositioned to Punta Cormorant, home of the greater flamingoes. A couple of kayak outings and beach time for our guests were the first activities of the afternoon. Oh boy did we have a blast! Our younger guests just had an impressive display of energy as they played and swung almost none stop bringing joy to all of us, this was just wonderful! After these water activities we reunited on the beach to start our walk. We went to a large brackish water lagoon which is the perfect environment for small crustaceans. Greater flamingoes are in constant search of this vital meal. Our walk also took us to a white sand beach where silence resides. This beach gave us the extraordinary opportunity to embrace calmness and isolation as many of us just simply sat and felt this magnificence of the Galápagos. Back onboard the National Geographic Islander as the sun set, many of our guests realized that we had reached the pinnacle of our expedition. We became a family with each other and with Nature. Tomorrow is our last full day and we will squeeze it to the fullest as our journey continues.
