Floreana Island
Floreana is the island where natural history meets human history. This large central island has a superb collection of wildlife as well as landscapes.
Today we started with an early visit to Punta Cormorant on the north side of this island. Here we found a number of sea turtles floating on a shallow calm bay. We saw some of them mating! This is the beginning of the breeding season in the Galápagos Islands, and it will go on for several months. Sea turtles are quite numerous and thousands of them nest all over the islands.
Later on we visited a small island called Champion for a Zodiac ride and snorkeling. During the Zodiac cruise we had the opportunity to see a lot of seabirds including Nazca boobies, red billed tropic birds and the elusive Floreana mockingbird, which was perched in the cactus forest. Snorkeling was superb; when we jumped in the water we were surrounded by thousands of colorful tropical fish. Champion Island is home to a large colony of Galápagos sea lions. As we explored the undersea, we had a great time playing with a group of these marine mammals.
In the afternoon we visited the legendary Post Office Bay also located on the north side of Floreana. This place is famous for its history. Back in the whaling era, hundreds of whaling ships visited Floreana for their supplies of fresh water and tortoises as well as wood to cook the blubber of the whales.
Some of us explored Post Office Bay from the Zodiacs and some others explored the place from kayaks. We all had a great time and I can’t wait to do and see more!
