Floreana Island
Floreana is the island with the richest human history and one of the most beautiful places in Galápagos. Its history began with whalers, pirates and buccaneers, who visited this place to hide their treasures, resupply and deliver letters to their relatives in Post Office Bay. It was due to its strategic position and its international significance that the president Juan Jose Flores decided to nominate it the first political capital of the Galápagos during the 1830’s.
Early in the morning we headed to Post Office Bay, to visit the old barrel. Something wasn’t well this morning, because just beside the barrel, a mockingbird hungrily prowled on the ground calling our attention with its unmistakable chirping. At the first moment we were very happy and thought it was a Floreana mockingbird (this species became extinct on Floreana due to the devastation produced by introduced cats, finding its last refuge in Champion Islet in front of the main island of Floreana). But certainly when observed its structure, its long beak and its behavior, we identified it as an Española mockingbird. How did that terrestrial bird get to Floreana from Española? It is a good question we had to inquire. Our guests heard many stories about the barrel and finally they left their postcards, exchanging them with others to hand deliver when they get home.
After breakfast, we started a beautiful Zodiac ride around Champion islet, with the mission to find the Floreana mockingbird, whose population is no more than a hundred of them. We were lucky; we found many of them chirping on cactus trees. On crevices on the cliffs long white feathers showed us the place where red billed tropic birds nested, showing us its beautiful plumage.
After the Zodiac ride, we went back to the islet, but this time for snorkeling, which was great, because the weather conditions were excellent; our guests observed white tipped reef sharks, tropical fish and played with baby sea lions.
In the afternoon our activities began with kayaking along the Punta Cormorant coast; it was a good moment for relaxing and for observing sea turtles and boobies fishing just beside the kayaks. Then was time for visiting the island.
It was 4 o’clock when we disembarked at Punta Cormorant; its beach looks green because of high concentrations of olivine, which we found in small grains. Behind, the flamingo lagoon looked empty, so we headed to the second beach, which is white with high content of organic material.
In the air, a group a frigatebirds flew in a feeding frenzy, disinterring and swallowing baby sea turtles, incredibly without landing. It was late when we headed back to the ship; when we crossed beside the lagoon, it was very dark, but suddenly a guest called our attention when we observed two flamingos feeding. This was great because it has been two weeks since we’ve seen that elusive but beautiful bird.
