Floreana Island
Florena is the sixth-largest of the islands and one of the most beautiful places to visit in Galápagos. Well-known for the tragic history of its first residents, Floreana was the first capital of the archipelago back in 1832 when Ecuador took possession of the islands, headed by General Jose de Villamil.
After a very long navigation from Isabela, we headed to our first visit: to Post Office Bay. This is the place where a functioning mailbox for American and British whalers began in the late 18th-century. Today, our guests who leave postcards hope they will find their way to their destinations like a message in a bottle.
The weather was excellent. It was not raining, but the sea was a little bit choppy, and from the distance we saw a group of storm-petrels begin their routine looking for food by “walking” on the surface on the water; from the dinghies we were trying to avoid the waves and come back dry to the ship.
After breakfast we started a beautiful dinghy ride around Champion Islet; there our guests enjoyed looking for the elusive “Floreana mockingbird” and we saw it. Not only one, but many, flying and chirping happily because the first rainfalls came just days ago.
We finished our activities in the morning snorkeling around the same islet. It was fantastic, with a perfect temperature, and sunny and transparent water. We saw colorful fish, including white tipped and black tipped reef sharks. Other guests saw sea turtles and many of us played with friendly sea lions, repeating their movements twisting our bodies like they do. We finished our morning activities at noon, just before lunch.
In the afternoon we continued on Floreana, but we started our activities with kayaking in another place: Punta Cormorant. It was exciting, because it was windy and we had to paddle strongly. I shared the kayak with a guest and we really enjoyed looking for sea turtles. We certainly saw many, but the most attractive was one was on the beach trying to look for a good place for nesting, a difficult task because the tide was too high and that poor creature had to come back to the ocean after many attempts.
At 4 o’clock we landed on the green beach of Punta Cormorant. This time it was the time for the flamingos. Just behind the beach, the large lagoon sheltered more than thirty of them; it was a beautiful scene, comparing the contrast of the pink color with the island’s landscape. We saw them no more than six feet from us, other flying, feeding and landing. It was incredible how tame they are here in Galápagos.
Afterwards, by walking no more than 300 yards, we arrived to the white sand beach. This organic beach is the place where dozens of sea turtles nest every month, and of course in the water many of them swam patiently waiting for their opportunity to abandon the ocean and lay their eggs. Perhaps the best attraction was a couple of sea turtles mating. Around them, two males swam waiting their opportunity to mate with that tired female; certainly after many hours, she must be very tired.
It was just before sunset when the hills around us acquired an orange color, telling us it was time to go back to the ship. We left the white beach and when we arrived to the green one again, incredibly, the same sea turtle we saw at the beginning continued trying to find a place for nesting. Probably it was better at the white beach.
With the last silver lining we said goodbye to this beautiful island, happy because today was great.
