Floreana Island
We had an early morning wake-up call, 6:30am, to visit the first-ever inhabited island of the Galápagos archipelago. A site that takes us back to the human history of the islands, Post Office Bay is one of the oldest mailing systems of the Pacific, known by whalers, pirates and buccaneers that would come to this particular place in search of fresh water and giant tortoises. The barrel dates back to 1973 and first shows on Captain James Colnett’s maps. As most of us know today, he was a British whaler who was also charged of surveying the Pacific coast.
The Zodiac ride around Champion Islet to look for the Floreana Mockingbird amid our morning activities kept us looking all around. The sea lions, as usual, were the stars of the show. They started playing around us, inviting us to swim with them in their water. We accepted the invitation and went back on board to change into our snorkeling gear to go back into the water. A big school of sting rays welcomed us and hundreds and hundreds of colorful tropical fish kept us busy again. As we approached the playful sea lions, we just knew that much of our time was just going to be spent with them. Even at the end, one of our curious friends wanted to get on the Zodiac with us. What a neat experience to be able to enjoy and share their home with us!
In the afternoon in Punta Cormorant, which in fact does not have cormorants around (but was named after a ship that wrecked on the bay back in the old days), we walked around a brackish water lagoon, home of the greater flamingos, a Galápagos sub-specie not big in numbers. As we know today, island populations can’t be too big. Due to size, this isolated archipelago can only take up to a certain number of species and individuals. We did not find the flamingos this time, but we were quite happy looking at the same sceneries that Darwin saw. The magic of the place and its vegetation has a lot to do with it and the fragility of the ecosystems just makes the whole experience an unforgettable one.
