Floreana Island
The island of Floreana is a never ending source of surprises. This very first island of the archipelago to be inhabited by humans is always generous in offering a lot of fun to all of our guests. Starting with an optional early wake up call, many of us disembarked with a wet landing at the historical Post Office Bay. Pirates, whalers, buccaneers and the first settlers disembarked right at the same spot as we did and their ancient galleys would be anchored at the same spot as the Islander was.
We all enjoyed the charming stories about the first mailing system established in Ecuadorian territory; it was a post office barrel placed here by a Captain at the end of the seventeen hundreds. It was the most important mailing office for sailors around the South Pacific at that time and we still follow the tradition with our guests. You take a post card to be hand delivered in your home area and leave yours, so the guests who come in the future will do the same for you. After we heard some more information about the first settlers of Floreana, we went back on board for breakfast.
The second outing of the morning was fabulous snorkeling around Champion Islet. The water was cold but we scarcely noticed as we admired huge schools of colorful fish and followed twirling sea lions. We had lots of fun back at the ship, leaping from the bow with our Expedition Leader Lynn and Naturalist Rafael, and then two Zodiacs went to search for the rare Floreana mocking bird.
In the afternoon there was a choice of activities, starting with kayaking at two o’clock, and again at three o’clock. At four o’clock we disembarked on a greenish brown beach with thousands of tiny olivine crystals in the sand. The afternoon’s walk was an easy one along a trail that led to a brackish lagoon where spectacular pink Galápagos flamingoes were feeding. The sun was setting as we returned to the ship where we enjoyed Video Chronicler Sarah Culler’s video preview and a delicious barbecue dinner on the sky deck followed by latin dancing!
The island of Floreana is a never ending source of surprises. This very first island of the archipelago to be inhabited by humans is always generous in offering a lot of fun to all of our guests. Starting with an optional early wake up call, many of us disembarked with a wet landing at the historical Post Office Bay. Pirates, whalers, buccaneers and the first settlers disembarked right at the same spot as we did and their ancient galleys would be anchored at the same spot as the Islander was.
We all enjoyed the charming stories about the first mailing system established in Ecuadorian territory; it was a post office barrel placed here by a Captain at the end of the seventeen hundreds. It was the most important mailing office for sailors around the South Pacific at that time and we still follow the tradition with our guests. You take a post card to be hand delivered in your home area and leave yours, so the guests who come in the future will do the same for you. After we heard some more information about the first settlers of Floreana, we went back on board for breakfast.
The second outing of the morning was fabulous snorkeling around Champion Islet. The water was cold but we scarcely noticed as we admired huge schools of colorful fish and followed twirling sea lions. We had lots of fun back at the ship, leaping from the bow with our Expedition Leader Lynn and Naturalist Rafael, and then two Zodiacs went to search for the rare Floreana mocking bird.
In the afternoon there was a choice of activities, starting with kayaking at two o’clock, and again at three o’clock. At four o’clock we disembarked on a greenish brown beach with thousands of tiny olivine crystals in the sand. The afternoon’s walk was an easy one along a trail that led to a brackish lagoon where spectacular pink Galápagos flamingoes were feeding. The sun was setting as we returned to the ship where we enjoyed Video Chronicler Sarah Culler’s video preview and a delicious barbecue dinner on the sky deck followed by latin dancing!
