Floreana Island
Today we had an early optional wake up call, in order to visit one of the oldest post office barrels in South America. This communication system was set by James Colnet in the mid 1700’s on Floreana Island at Post Office Bay. In those days Whalers and Sealers used to be away from their home Country for up to Five years; when they were ready to set course back home, they visited this particular place, and took letters to hand deliver them.
We keep this old tradition, visiting Post Office with our guest week after week. You can drop post cards addressed to yourself or to friends, no stamps are needed. In the way back to the National Geographic Polaris, We had the chance to see Galápagos Penguins, Pacific green sea turtles and baby black tip reef and hammerhead Sharks.
Later on we headed for deep and shallow water activities at Champion Islet. This is a place where all guests have an incredible time swimming and playing with Galápagos sea lion pups.
Before our morning activities were over, we even had the chance to take our Zodiacs and go back to Champion Islet. This time it was to look for one of the rarest land birds in the world, the Floreana mockingbird, extinct from the main island but still present on this satellite islet.
We started our afternoon activities very early in the afternoon with kayakers, while others preferred to nap, read or observe the beauty of Floreana Island from the ship. Later everyone joined the late afternoon walk.
Next we landed on “Mystery Island”, known as such for its rich human history. It has one of the largest greater flamingo populations in Galápagos. We don’t know exactly when these lagoon birds came to the islands, but they are already considered a unique race for Galápagos.
As soon as we arrived to the leeward side of the beach, the "pirates of the sky" (frigate birds) were gliding over the beach, and they were not there in vain, they were attacking the new Pacific green sea turtle hatchlings before they even got to the sea.
By 6:00 pm we were coming back on board while the sun was setting as a nice farewell for all of us.
Today we had an early optional wake up call, in order to visit one of the oldest post office barrels in South America. This communication system was set by James Colnet in the mid 1700’s on Floreana Island at Post Office Bay. In those days Whalers and Sealers used to be away from their home Country for up to Five years; when they were ready to set course back home, they visited this particular place, and took letters to hand deliver them.
We keep this old tradition, visiting Post Office with our guest week after week. You can drop post cards addressed to yourself or to friends, no stamps are needed. In the way back to the National Geographic Polaris, We had the chance to see Galápagos Penguins, Pacific green sea turtles and baby black tip reef and hammerhead Sharks.
Later on we headed for deep and shallow water activities at Champion Islet. This is a place where all guests have an incredible time swimming and playing with Galápagos sea lion pups.
Before our morning activities were over, we even had the chance to take our Zodiacs and go back to Champion Islet. This time it was to look for one of the rarest land birds in the world, the Floreana mockingbird, extinct from the main island but still present on this satellite islet.
We started our afternoon activities very early in the afternoon with kayakers, while others preferred to nap, read or observe the beauty of Floreana Island from the ship. Later everyone joined the late afternoon walk.
Next we landed on “Mystery Island”, known as such for its rich human history. It has one of the largest greater flamingo populations in Galápagos. We don’t know exactly when these lagoon birds came to the islands, but they are already considered a unique race for Galápagos.
As soon as we arrived to the leeward side of the beach, the "pirates of the sky" (frigate birds) were gliding over the beach, and they were not there in vain, they were attacking the new Pacific green sea turtle hatchlings before they even got to the sea.
By 6:00 pm we were coming back on board while the sun was setting as a nice farewell for all of us.
