Floreana Island
In the morning, we had a very early visit full of enthusiasm to learn about the history and mysteries of Floreana Island. We had a wet landing on one of its famous places known as Post Office Bay. It was interesting to listen to all the stories of events and characters from back in the 1700s: whalers, pirates, buccaneers and famous Captains.
We experienced the barrel first hand as many adventurous people and sailors that have passed through these islands with different reasons on their minds. Letters from many countries were found, we took some to hand deliver them when we go back home; we also dropped ours in the barrel; let’s see how long it takes before this easy but practical method brings a letter back to our hands.
It was a very interesting morning, after heading back to the National Geographic Polaris for breakfast we went out again around Champion islet for a wonderful snorkeling experience with playful sea lions and many tropical fish. Some of us also went around the islet to look for the Floreana Mockingbird, which is actually pretty rare and only nests on the satellite islets around Floreana.
In the afternoon we disembarked on Cormorant Point, another impressive visitor site on Floreana. This place amazed us with the golden–greenish sand very rich in olivine, which is a semi-precious mineral that gives this coloration to the sand. As we started heading farther inside, we were greeted by a group of greater flamingos which was numerous considering the total number on the islands; the pink outfitting colors in the blackish water lagoon was just beautiful, together with the green colors of the mangroves, the brown of the ground and the pink reflected on the water. It was Galápagos in front of our eyes, and not only in pictures as we had seen them before; this time it was for real, we were there!
As we continued with our hike, we saw a medium tree finch, a very unusual sighting for this area because its normal habitat is the highlands. Many endemic and native plants were sighted, and at the end we arrived at a beautiful white coralline sandy beach, that looked as if like tons of flour had been spread all over the beach for us; it was amazing how fine the sand was, and the whole contrast of the white and the turquoise waters that were holding few numbers of sea turtles, sting rays, and blue-footed boobies fishing. This time we could see details about the breeding behavior of green sea turtles with all the tracks left on the beach, and plenty of nests very high up on shore.
At the end of the day we got back to the beach where we had landed, and stared our return to the National Geographic Polaris. After a great day enjoying all these wonders of the Galápagos, we are looking forward for more in the rest of the week.
In the morning, we had a very early visit full of enthusiasm to learn about the history and mysteries of Floreana Island. We had a wet landing on one of its famous places known as Post Office Bay. It was interesting to listen to all the stories of events and characters from back in the 1700s: whalers, pirates, buccaneers and famous Captains.
We experienced the barrel first hand as many adventurous people and sailors that have passed through these islands with different reasons on their minds. Letters from many countries were found, we took some to hand deliver them when we go back home; we also dropped ours in the barrel; let’s see how long it takes before this easy but practical method brings a letter back to our hands.
It was a very interesting morning, after heading back to the National Geographic Polaris for breakfast we went out again around Champion islet for a wonderful snorkeling experience with playful sea lions and many tropical fish. Some of us also went around the islet to look for the Floreana Mockingbird, which is actually pretty rare and only nests on the satellite islets around Floreana.
In the afternoon we disembarked on Cormorant Point, another impressive visitor site on Floreana. This place amazed us with the golden–greenish sand very rich in olivine, which is a semi-precious mineral that gives this coloration to the sand. As we started heading farther inside, we were greeted by a group of greater flamingos which was numerous considering the total number on the islands; the pink outfitting colors in the blackish water lagoon was just beautiful, together with the green colors of the mangroves, the brown of the ground and the pink reflected on the water. It was Galápagos in front of our eyes, and not only in pictures as we had seen them before; this time it was for real, we were there!
As we continued with our hike, we saw a medium tree finch, a very unusual sighting for this area because its normal habitat is the highlands. Many endemic and native plants were sighted, and at the end we arrived at a beautiful white coralline sandy beach, that looked as if like tons of flour had been spread all over the beach for us; it was amazing how fine the sand was, and the whole contrast of the white and the turquoise waters that were holding few numbers of sea turtles, sting rays, and blue-footed boobies fishing. This time we could see details about the breeding behavior of green sea turtles with all the tracks left on the beach, and plenty of nests very high up on shore.
At the end of the day we got back to the beach where we had landed, and stared our return to the National Geographic Polaris. After a great day enjoying all these wonders of the Galápagos, we are looking forward for more in the rest of the week.
