Floreana Island
Today we woke up at Post Office Bay on the northwest side of Floreana with beautiful scenery such as the dry vegetation with the parasitic cones. At 07:00 am in the morning we took a dinghy shuttle to Post Office Bay which has had a lot of human history since the early 16th century onwards. This history includes people like pirates, buccaneers, and whalers, along with eccentric people such as Doctor Ritter, the Wittmer’s family, and the Baroness. It also includes the most famous visitor to the islands, Charles Darwin.
We found postcards for almost all the States in the USA and most of our guests took one to hand-deliver when they return home. We went back on board the National Geographic Islander and while we were having breakfast, the ship motored towards Champion Islet.
At 09:30 we all went for a zodiac ride around Champion Islet to find the elusive Charles mockingbird, and we saw it. After this, we went snorkeling and it was one of the best snorkeling outings. We saw white tip reef sharks, sea turtles, king angel fish, sea lions, etc.
After lunch people had the chance to rest and then some of them went kayaking. Others went to the beach and after these activities we all went to visit Punta Cormorant. This turned out to be a great visit because we saw turtles mating, and flamingos displaying and feeding their chicks. Even the sun set was a very good one.
Back on board and we had Gilda, our Expedition Leader, brief the guests about the following day. Jeff our Video Chronicler also gave us all a tease about the video shot during the week. It was a very good one. Right after this we had a barbeque dinner on the sky deck. It was a wonderful day.
