Floreana Island
Today we had an early wakeup call and went to visit Post Office Bay on the Island of Floreana. Post Office Bay is one of the interesting historical sites to visit, since eccentric people came to live here for a lot of different reasons. The barrel was set up by an English whaler named James Colnett who came to investigate the whaling grounds; he also thought of a way for the whalers to send mail home to their loved ones. Whalers spent up to five years at sea at a time and that was a long stretch out of touch with their relatives. So whalers heading homeward bound would stop in Post Office Bay, collect the mail and once they got back to England, they would hand deliver it.
Floreana has a strange human history, with diverse stories of deaths and disappearances that took place here. The first couple that arrived was Doctor Frederick Ritter and his mistress Dora Strauch, from Germany. Another German couple, Margaret Wittmer with her husband Heinz and her stepson Harry soon followed. Finally the most eccentric of all arrived, an Austrian Baroness and her three lovers. There are multiple books published that tell the tale of intrigue in the 1930’s of these eccentric inhabitants of Floreana.
After sorting through the mail and taking what we could deliver, we went back on board and while we were having breakfast, we motored towards Champion Islet. The National Geographic Islander dropped anchor and we went for a panga ride around Champion Islet. We were delighted to find several of the rare Charles mockingbirds. These mockers used to be numerous on Floreana but are now reduced to small populations on Champion and Gardner Islets. We also saw tropicbirds in their nests, swallow-tailed gulls, sea lions, and a variety of short, stout prickly pear cactus endemic to Floreana.
Next on our agenda was snorkeling and we had a “whale of time.” We swam among thousands of fish, white tip reef sharks, streamer hog fish, king angel fish, dusky chubs, striped salema, large schools of yellow tail surgeon fish and we were joined by some playful sea lions who twisted and spun around us. One Zodiac of guests had not yet slipped into the water when Lynn spotted a whale about a mile out to sea. Their Zodiac was able approach the large mother and tiny calf so close they could hear them blow. Magnificent!
We had lunch while the ship navigated to Punta Cormorant, the northernmost point on Floreana. In the afternoon some of our guests went kayaking, while others enjoyed a siesta; at four o’clock we all went ashore to visit Punta Cormorant. Here we saw flamingos, white checked pintail ducks, the olivine sand formation, a lovely fine white sand beach which is a major sea turtle nesting area, and sting rays in the shallows.
Back on the landing beach again, the younger folks in our crowd went swimming and the rest of us headed back on board for a drink. In the evening VC Jeff Litton showed his preview of this week’s video – what a marvelous time we have had!
