Floreana Island
The early morning found us anchored in Post Office Bay. A wet landing and the shortest walk of the week brought us to the place where sailors and whalers used to leave their letters to be hand delivered to their families. We wanted to keep up the tradition and went through the postcards, taking the ones that we promised to deliver personally and leaving new ones. We returned to the Zodiacs for a ride to La Loberia, a sea lion colony, where we found young sea lions, great blue herons, pelicans and frigates. This was only the beginning of what turned out to be a spectacular day!
We returned to the Islander hungry for breakfast. After the meal we had the best snorkeling of the week off Champion Islet. Dozens of playful baby sea lions gave us lessons in graceful swimming and free diving. Although we also observed a huge number of fish, colorful sea stars and even a shark or two, the sea lions got all the attention and stole the show!
Back on board the Islander, there was short time to get ready for a Zodiac ride around Champion. We were lucky to find the rare Charles mockingbird. We had good looks at the red billed tropicbird, Nazca boobies, common noddies and Galápagos shearwaters.
Following a short siesta, “rambo snorkelers” headed to a submerged crater called Devil’s Crown where the current drifted us through endless schools of fish, sting rays and white tipped reef sharks. A group of kayakers went back to La Loberia to enjoy a peaceful paddle session among the sea turtles and sea lions.
The last visit of the day was to Punta Cormorant. We landed on a greenish beach and followed a cindery trail that took us to a brackish water lagoon. Here we found over 20 flamingos, most of them standing on one leg. We walked to a second beach, made of a fine powdery white coral sand which is a nesting area for green sea turtles.It has been a long and marvelous day, a typical day in the Galápagos Islands.
The early morning found us anchored in Post Office Bay. A wet landing and the shortest walk of the week brought us to the place where sailors and whalers used to leave their letters to be hand delivered to their families. We wanted to keep up the tradition and went through the postcards, taking the ones that we promised to deliver personally and leaving new ones. We returned to the Zodiacs for a ride to La Loberia, a sea lion colony, where we found young sea lions, great blue herons, pelicans and frigates. This was only the beginning of what turned out to be a spectacular day!
We returned to the Islander hungry for breakfast. After the meal we had the best snorkeling of the week off Champion Islet. Dozens of playful baby sea lions gave us lessons in graceful swimming and free diving. Although we also observed a huge number of fish, colorful sea stars and even a shark or two, the sea lions got all the attention and stole the show!
Back on board the Islander, there was short time to get ready for a Zodiac ride around Champion. We were lucky to find the rare Charles mockingbird. We had good looks at the red billed tropicbird, Nazca boobies, common noddies and Galápagos shearwaters.
Following a short siesta, “rambo snorkelers” headed to a submerged crater called Devil’s Crown where the current drifted us through endless schools of fish, sting rays and white tipped reef sharks. A group of kayakers went back to La Loberia to enjoy a peaceful paddle session among the sea turtles and sea lions.
The last visit of the day was to Punta Cormorant. We landed on a greenish beach and followed a cindery trail that took us to a brackish water lagoon. Here we found over 20 flamingos, most of them standing on one leg. We walked to a second beach, made of a fine powdery white coral sand which is a nesting area for green sea turtles.It has been a long and marvelous day, a typical day in the Galápagos Islands.
