Floreana Island
Early in the morning Floreana Island (also known as Charles and Santa Maria), one of my favorite spots in the Galápagos Islands, appeared as a peaceful but mysterious island dotted with volcanic cones amidst its sandalwood trees. Its colorful human history goes back almost two centuries and, at times, verges on the bizarre: from marooned whalers to prisoners and colonists, and from a toothless dentist to a self-proclaimed empress.
We disembarked on a fascinating beach of olivine sand, at a site named Punta Cormorant (named after a boat wreck — because no cormorants are found here!). Then we took and inland trail skirt by a brackish lagoon where some waders were spotted such as the black necked stilts, semipalmated plovers and white cheeked pintail ducks. The view of the lake from the overlook is fantastic as you can see the volcanic cones and lava flows and even sometimes flamingos feeding in these waters.
Soon after we reached a second beautiful beach of incredibly fine, white, coralline sand — a favorite nesting site for green sea turtles. A few recent tracks were spotted today as well as a couple of turtles near the shore and the always-fascinating Sally Lightfoot crabs.
Back aboard for breakfast, National Geographic Islander repositioned to a small offshore volcanic cone named Champion Islet. This is one of two tiny islets where a remnant population of the Floreana mockingbird — which was driven to extinction by cats, rats and other introduced predators on the main island — still exists. We went for a Zodiac ride around the islet in the search of the elusive mockingbird and later on we were “drift snorkeling” in the company of many young and playful sea lions surrounded by colorful fish species. Water temperature was chilly but soon we forgot about it!
After enjoying a delicious Ecuadorian buffet lunch, we landed at the famous Post Office Bay, where a barrel is still used for an old mail swap tradition going back to whaling days — it was first mentioned in 1793 by British Captain James Colnett. Going through hundreds of postcards and letters, our guests follow this old tradition by taking some of them to be hand delivered one day (hopefully soon!)
Before sunset we explored the bay aboard kayaks and Zodiacs as we followed in Charles Darwin’s footsteps. Floreana was the second of four islands he went ashore on during his 5-week visit to the Galápagos Islands in September 1835.
