Floreana Island
Floreana Island has long had a halo of mystery floating around it. This island has one of the most famous histories of human presence in the whole archipelago. Since the beginning of the commercial whaling until Darwin visit´s days, Floreana was unfortunately the main supplying center of giant tortoises and fresh water for the passing ships. Due to its importance and strategic position, it was declared the first political capital of the new province of Galápagos back in 1832, when Ecuador took position of the archipelago.
After a long navigation from Isabela Island, National Geographic Islander dropped anchor in front of Post Office bay. A barrel placed a few meters from the landing beach was an important center of communications for hundreds of years in the Pacific Ocean. After an early wake up call, our guests visited the old barrel, with the mission to continue with the old tradition used by seafarers in the past, leaving their written messages inside the barrel and taken others to hand-deliver them. Our guests listened with interest to stories of whalers and the first visitors, meanwhile in the air, a flock of birds flew anxiously searching for food.
After breakfast, we went for a Zodiac ride around Champion islet, one of the last refuges of the “Floreana mockingbirds.” The population became extinct in the main island of Floreana, due to introduced animals’ depredation. Our goal was to not get back on board until finding this elusive bird species. Our guests certainly fulfilled this task, for they observed many of them flying overhead. As we continued exploring the coastline, we observed interesting lava crevices, which sheltered many different bird species such as red-billed tropic birds, swallow-tailed gulls and shearwaters. Just after returning from the Zodiac outing, we went back to Champion islet, this time to interact a bit close with the sea life. We snorkeled with baby Galápagos sea lions, sea turtles and many different species of fish, including white-tipped reef sharks. The water was a little bit cold, thus we had to be well prepared with our wetsuits, but once in the water, we got over the cold water with this unique experience.
In the afternoon after a short navigation, the National Geographic Islander showed us another location on Floreana: Punta Cormorant. The green beach contrasted with the brownish hills and the sea front – a perfect setting for kayaking. While paddling along the coastline, a group of guests enjoyed a milder and dry climate, observing sea turtles, boobies and sea lions. The last outing of the day began with a wet landing on the green beach; it contains a high percentage of olivine or peridot in the sand. We certainly found many tiny rests of this mineral disseminated along the beach. In the white beach where the trail ends, we observed sea turtles, sting rays and frigate birds, which paid no attention to us, flying indifferently searching for baby sea turtles’ hatchlings. Hearing the sounds of silence and with the sunset in front of us, we finally returned to the ship, our home during this week.
