Floreana Island
With a pre-breakfast outing we started the day that belongs exclusively to the island of Floreana. This island is not only very rich and respectful in matters of natural attractions but it is also a very important island regarding the human history of the Galápagos.
We landed at six thirty at the historical Post Office Bay and found the picturesque and old Post Office Barrel. It has been changed some few times but the barrel we found represents a wine barrel that was placed on this bay by Captain James Colnett in 1793 for the purpose of having regular mail around the South Pacific for the early sailors that wandered the seas in those times. It was the first mailing system in Ecuador before Ecuador was even independent from Spain!
The very first human being that ever lived in the islands was Patrick Watkins. He was an Irish buccaneer who was left behind on this island because his captain did not want him any more on board his vessel. Watkins was a renegade and a dangerous man, always pushing the crew into mutiny against his captain.
He was so tough that he survived for about three years all by himself on Floreana, trading the cabbages he would grow for rum. He survived drunk for quite a while until somehow he managed to return to the mainland and nothing else was heard about him. But what we know for sure is that he was tough enough to survive on this island. Books refer to his skin as that of a marine iguana as it was so burned by the sun. He would smash tree lichens to cure the wounds and the blisters the sun burns would leave. The islands really tried to make his captain happy taking his life away but Watkins won the battle and he survived!
Floreana offered to us beautiful highlights. We bird-watched after breakfast and snorkeled around Champion Islet.
Kayakers had a great time after lunch and later in the afternoon we walked in Punta Cormorant to see the very pink Galápagos flamingos.
We could not ask more from this beautiful island.
