Floreana Island
The National Geographic Islander navigated all night long from the western side to the southern side of the archipelago. Even if the night was a little rough, it wasn’t an impediment for our early visit. We disembarked at the oldest post system in the Pacific Ocean, the very famous Post Office Barrel. In 1973 it appeared on a map for the first time and from then on it hasn’t stop communicating with the entire world. We couldn’t stop the tradition, so with our postcards in our hands we went to open the barrel, take with us the old cards that were left there, leave ours, and make a promise to hand deliver the ones that we took.
Coming back we got the great news: Whales! We moved the ship to encounter them and after a few blows without identification we finally heard from our Expedition Leader Lynn Fowler the species we were looking at: Blue whales! The largest animal in the world! We enjoyed their company all morning.
Snorkeling couldn’t be better with huge schools of fish and some playful sea lions. And before the morning ended we looked for and found the Floreana mockingbird on Champion islet.
In the afternoon we off-loaded our kayaks to explore the shore of Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island. Blue footed boobies and sea lions were very curious about our kayakers. We came just in time to our afternoon walk, from which Flamingos were the highlight.
For closing a perfect day we had a barbeque on the sun deck, a little bit of salsa music, and dancing… and we are ready for tomorrow.
