Floreana Island
Today we had an early start, and the reason behind it was to visit the Post Office Bay and the Post Office Barrel on Floreana Island. This area is rich in human history of the Galápagos, and we couldn’t have chosen a better setting than this to talk about the whalers and the buccaneers that visited the islands long ago. We believe that the barrel was erected on this place in 1793 by James Colnett, because he was the first one to mention this historical site in his records. The origin of the barrel and its system had a very altruistic purpose: it was the only way of communication between ships from England and the United States with their relatives back home!After we experienced the traditional way of sending and receiving letters at the "post office", we were ready for our water activities, but we got breakfast first, of course!We were already done with breakfast and we couldn’t wait to get in the water; the sun was shining and we had our swimming suits on, ready to snorkel around Champion Island. Conditions were great, and the good visibility promised an excellent outing. Once there, it did not disappoint us; Champion was at its best!
Large schools of tropical fish everywhere, but probably the highlight for everyone was to be face to face with sea lions under water. It seemed as if they were waiting for us, and we were amazed by their incredible flexibility under water as they twisted and contorted their bodies around us. Of course if you think about it, in order to catch a fish you need to be fast and flexible, and that is what they showed us today, they are my favorite animals!
For the afternoon we skirted a brackish lagoon at Point Cormorant; this is a great habitat for waders such as ducks, flamingoes and stilts. The flamingoes were very close and they were constantly feeding in the shallows of the lagoon, giving us great perspective of their svelte appearance and colors. Aside from taking wonderful pictures during the whole afternoon, we also decided to take some time to simply observe a spectacular sunset and to enjoy the calmness of the sea. It has been another great day!
Today we had an early start, and the reason behind it was to visit the Post Office Bay and the Post Office Barrel on Floreana Island. This area is rich in human history of the Galápagos, and we couldn’t have chosen a better setting than this to talk about the whalers and the buccaneers that visited the islands long ago. We believe that the barrel was erected on this place in 1793 by James Colnett, because he was the first one to mention this historical site in his records. The origin of the barrel and its system had a very altruistic purpose: it was the only way of communication between ships from England and the United States with their relatives back home!After we experienced the traditional way of sending and receiving letters at the "post office", we were ready for our water activities, but we got breakfast first, of course!We were already done with breakfast and we couldn’t wait to get in the water; the sun was shining and we had our swimming suits on, ready to snorkel around Champion Island. Conditions were great, and the good visibility promised an excellent outing. Once there, it did not disappoint us; Champion was at its best!
Large schools of tropical fish everywhere, but probably the highlight for everyone was to be face to face with sea lions under water. It seemed as if they were waiting for us, and we were amazed by their incredible flexibility under water as they twisted and contorted their bodies around us. Of course if you think about it, in order to catch a fish you need to be fast and flexible, and that is what they showed us today, they are my favorite animals!
For the afternoon we skirted a brackish lagoon at Point Cormorant; this is a great habitat for waders such as ducks, flamingoes and stilts. The flamingoes were very close and they were constantly feeding in the shallows of the lagoon, giving us great perspective of their svelte appearance and colors. Aside from taking wonderful pictures during the whole afternoon, we also decided to take some time to simply observe a spectacular sunset and to enjoy the calmness of the sea. It has been another great day!
