Floreana Island

This morning we awoke near a well known seafaring site. Many years ago whalers and sealers in the Pacific Ocean came to Floreana Island seeking food and water; the island provided them with both. When they left their home country, they knew they would be gone for several years. Captain James Colnett had an idea for his crew to remain in contact with loved ones. He set up a barrel at Post Office Bay; when seafarers were in the area, they would stop to collect letters, and deliver others when back in their home country.

This morning everyone from the National Geographic Polaris had the opportunity to keep this tradition alive. With post cards in hand we disembarked and dropped them inside the barrel (and collected some of them too).

Afterwards, the ship repositioned and we continued our adventure. We split up into groups depending one which activities we preferred to partake in. The groups to disembark were the deep water snorkelers, followed by the shallow water snorkelers at a most beautiful snorkeling site, and then those wishing to explore via glass bottom boat. Late morning, after returning from our activities we went out again, but this time we had a different mission: to look for the Floreana mockingbird, extinct on the main island of Floreana, but still living on two satellites islets off the coast.

Once everybody was back onboard and after a much deserved nap, some of us decided to explore some of the coast of Point Cormorant, Floreana Island onboard our kayaks.

At four o’clock we met at a beautiful green sandy beach to see an amazing brackish lagoon with lots of pink flamingos, and many other lagoon birds. After crossing the isthmus of Point Cormorant we arrived at a white sandy beach. As soon as we arrived we took our shoes off and started exploring. We even saw sharks and “double-decker” turtles close to shore.

Galápagos is a great place to visit any time of year, and we have seen why in these last two days!