Floreana Island
After a magical crossing, riding the ocean swells while looking at moonlit volcano Cerro Azul, the day started calm and slightly hazy. We got up early to bring – and hopefully pick up – cards at Post Office Bay. The tradition, once started by English whalers in the late 1700s, is still carried out here, at what is presumably the last really functioning post barrel in the world.
After breakfast, we headed out to find the Floreana mockingbird. Due to depredation, this is a very rare species only living on the two small islets Champion and Gardner. Sitting in the dinghy, gliding slowly along the cliffs, you see all kinds of marvels. The cacti of Champion are a real treat for the eye, the cliffs are the home of shearwaters and tropic birds, and on the edges, juvenile not-yet-flying blue footed boobies stare wearily at you and the water, knowing somewhere deep inside they will soon dominate the sky and pierce that water every day…
In the afternoon we landed on the ‘green’, volcanic beach of Punta Cormorant. The sand contains obsidian, peridots and several other minerals, likely a deposit of lava from a deeper source in our earth, being the mantle. We crossed the peninsula looking over the salt marshes in the hope to spot flamingoes, but they all had gone, finding more food somewhere else in the archipelago. They’ll be back.
Once on the other side we ended on yet another beach, this time of white, powdery organic sand, and admired the many green turtle nests. This beach is one of the main nesting sites for the green sea turtle in Galápagos. Some frigate birds were patrolling the beach, now and then swooping down trying to catch a newly hatched turtle.
The sun sank lower and made everything look more intense; my favorite moment of the day! We walked back enjoying the view of an austere but beautiful island painted in the soft streaks of disappearing light.
