Floreana Island
Floreana is my favorite island because I grew up here, when we were no more than 25 inhabitants without today’s facilities like electricity, transport and phones.
Floreana received its name in honor of Mr. Juan Jose Flores, our first president, but until now some people prefer its English name “Charles” or the Spanish name “Santa Maria.”
Early in the morning, we disembarked on the shores of Floreana to visit Post Office Bay, as many sailors have done since the 1790’s; it seems as if we have traveled back in time to the era of the buccaneers and pirates because we repeated the same tradition, taking postcards from the old barrel to hand deliver.
We observed the island, and began to talk about the first settlers, the penal colony established during 1830’s and Charles Darwin who visited this place and was witness of the first settlement in Galápagos.
After breakfast, we headed off to snorkel around Champion Islet. Snorkeling with the sea lions was incredible! We got tired of twirling and spinning with them, however they never seemed to be exhausted and obviously enjoyed our presence.
The water was very clear, and rich in many different species of tropical fish. We saw king angel fish, huge schools of razor surgeon fish and sea turtles. Just before we finished snorkeling, we noticed that the currents changed directions. Water from the north collided with warmer currents from the south, forming waves in all directions. Suddenly the temperature of the water decreased considerably. It was as if it were telling us it was time to go back to the ship and prepare for the next adventure: Zodiac rides around the islet.
During the Zodiac ride, the weather conditions were perfect and all our guests found the elusive Floreana mockingbird, the enigmatic bird that flew up to this islet escaping from introduced animals introduced by humans many years ago.
On rocks, we saw Nazca and blue footed boobies and a group of swallow tailed gulls sleeping in crevices on the cliffs.
In the afternoon, when we sailed to Punta Cormorant a group of bottle nose dolphins swam on both sides of the National Geographic Endeavour, as if giving us the official welcome to this side of Floreana.
Afterwards, as soon we got there, we began the first activity at Punta Cormorant: kayaking in front a beautiful greenish beach. The water was perfect – very clear – and from the kayaks, our guests enjoyed the visit from many green sea turtles that showed their heads to take a deep breath.
Finally, we made a wet landing on Punta Cormorant and took an easy hike to see flamingos feeding in a brackish lagoon. On the beach, we observed the green color of the beach, and immediately our guests discovered the reason: small pieces of olivine, a green transparent mineral that is found on the entire beach.
We passed beside a group of mangroves and walked up and over a hill to a white beach. This place is incredible because there are nests of sea turtles everywhere. At the end of this beach, a group of sting rays, sea turtles and white tipped reef sharks could be seen swimming along the water’s edge.
It was late and time to head back to the ship. We enjoyed a magnificent sunset. I am sure this visit to Floreana will remain in our minds forever.
