Floreana Island
To be on Floreana Island is like being back in time, when pirates, whalers and explorers used to come to this place for different reasons. One mission remained the same for all of them, and this was to look for food and drinking water. And perhaps Floreana was the best place in Galápagos to provide this vital element for life at sea.
This morning we disembarked on Post Office Bay to drop and collect postcards left by others visitors, and this was like being back in time, to maintain this very old tradition of Galápagos. Our second activity took place in a very small island known as Champion. Despite its small area of less than half a mile, it is one of the best places for water activities during our Galápagos cruise. There, everyone saw lots of fish, sharks, turtles and rays while snorkeling, even those without much experience in this kind of activity. Before lunch we went back to this place, this time to look for one the very unique birds in the Galápagos: the Floreana mockingbird.
By the afternoon we started our activities with those who wanted to go kayaking along the coastline of Cormorant point. Beach activities were also offered for our young explorers, and our last, but not least, activity was a walk from a green sandy beach to a white organic beach. Along our way we encountered a brackish lagoon. There we spotted more than 60 flamingos which were decorating this dramatic geological formation with their bright pink color.
Floreana Island has been chosen by the Galápagos National Park for 2009 in their priority list of restoration, and hopefully in the near future, Floreana mockingbirds, prickly pear cactus and giant tortoises could come back to their habitat, where once long ago there were no introduced species. This is just one example of the great work carried on by the Galápagos National Park Service.
