Floreana Island

We left southern Isabela last night and arrived at Floreana Island very early this morning. We went ashore before breakfast and had a great show of Galápagos penguins and blue-footed boobies feeding together right in front of us.

After observing some animal activity, we looked into a barrel for mail and letters left there by earlier visitors. This wooden barrel resembles one that used to be the only form of contact between sailors and their families. We maintain the ancient tradition by taking mail and hand delivering it back home. It always surprises us to see the amount of letters and the different destinations from all over the world these letters will go.

Once we were done looking for letters at Post Office Bay and its famous barrel, we sailed towards Champion Islet. Once there, we went on a Zodiac ride along the coast looking for one of the rarest birds in the world, the Floreana mockingbird. We encountered some, or maybe we should say they encountered us. We were followed by one which showed great interest in us. However, it was possible that the bird may have just been checking its territory and found us along the way.

We also saw red billed tropic birds, frigate birds, blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, and lots of swallow-tailed gulls. There and after our coastal exploration we went snorkeling in deep water where we found an incredible amount of marine life, lots of fish and playful sea lions. We returned aboard for one more delicious lunch and sailed to Punta Cormorant.

Punta Cormorant has no cormorants but was named after a ship that sank in front of this point. We went kayaking, and walking on a cinder trail to look for flamingoes, and what a surprise we had! Not only did we see adults, but we saw five small chicks that were not here last week. These young flamingoes were very pale looking and stayed close together. After a nice walk, we arrived at a gorgeous white sandy beach. There and from the shore we spotted some turtles, sting rays and a lonely shark.

We returned aboard and heard all kinds of fun stories from today.