Floreana Island
Floreana, also named Charles or Santa Maria Island, is one of the most beautiful islands of this pristine archipelago. Besides its wonderful natural history, this island has a fascinating human history as well, being the first island to be inhabited in the archipelago. Early in the morning we visited one of the most historical places not only in Floreana but in Galápagos, the Post Office Bay. Once on land, just some feet away from the landing beach and behind the vegetation there is an old wooden barrel. Inside the barrel we found many postcards with addresses from all over the world. Today, just like in the old times, as whalers and others after them did, we picked up and dropped letters and post cards to be hand delivered, without using stamps! Many of our guests were more than happy to continue with this tradition!
After breakfast we went towards our next stop of the day, Champion Islet. We dropped anchor and headed on our Zodiac fleet to explore the shoreline of Champion looking for the very rare Floreana mockingbird. We were successful for we saw several of them. This mockingbird species is one of the rarest and most endangered bird species in the World. Only about 150 individuals survive; the rest of the population became extinct on the big island of Floreana due to predation by introduced mammals during the last couple of centuries. In addition to this unusual bird, we saw blue-footed and Nazca boobies, Galápagos sea lions and huge prickly pear cacti that look like trees. We returned aboard to get ready to go snorkeling around Champion Islet. We had a fantastic snorkeling; there were rays, sharks, Galápagos sea lions, and large schools of fish.
In the afternoon we headed to another location, Punta Cormorant. Some of our guests went kayaking. In the late afternoon we went for a walk along the volcanic trail of Punta Cormorant. We encountered Greater flamingoes, Diamond stingrays, and we spotted some Pacific green sea turtles as well. We returned aboard with the last sun rays and enjoyed the reflection of beautiful golden colors on the waters around Punta Cormorant.
Reluctantly, we left this paradise, where humans and animals get along in harmony. We came back on board the National Geographic Islander dreaming about the adventures that await us tomorrow as we continue our expedition around this enchanted archipelago.
