Floreana
This morning on our early outing we learned that this island was the first one to be inhabited by a famous pirate known as Patrick Watkins. Later on it was used by the whalers as a stop to collect giant tortoises, fresh water and collect or drop off letters that needed to be taken to their homes or important notes to communicate with their fellow whalers.
Some of us left postcards, without a stamp, in the famous Post Office barrel to see how long it would take to get to their destination via hand delivery. At the same time, some of us retrieved some postcards that had an address close to where we lived with the intention of delivering them by hand, just like the old tradition implies.
After breakfast the National Geographic Islander sailed to the eastern side of the island for our next activity, which was a beautiful Zodiac ride around Champion Islet in order to see the elusive Floreana mockingbird. This bird was regularly found on the island of Floreana. Nowadays, it is only found on the satellite island of Champion due to the predation of cats in the main island.
After the Zodiac ride, some of us went for deep water snorkeling along the flanks of Champion. Here we saw large schools of king angelfish, creole fish, black striped salemas, black coral, rainbow wrasses, and so many other fish that this spot quickly became one of our favorite snorkeling sites.
Once more the National Geographic Islander sailed to the northern side of the island to visit Punta Cormorant. In the afternoon we had the opportunity to kayak along the bay and enjoy the many marine sea turtles that are in the area. We then had a wet landing on a green beach that gets its color from tiny olivine crystals, to walk on a short trail that took us to a brackish lagoon, where we found a group of 50 or so flamingoes that were eating along the brackish lagoon; we could also see some nesting. These birds really added color to our walk among the dry Palo Santo trees.
At the end of this trail we found a beautiful white sandy beach, where the sea turtles lay their eggs at night and we were lucky enough to see a few female marine turtles resting along the shore. So, with a beautiful sunset, we left Floreana looking forward to having another great day tomorrow.
