Floreana Island
When Charles Darwin came to the Galápagos in 1835, he was fascinated with the differences among the species, from one island to the other: tortoises, lizards, marine iguanas were all slightly different. Among all the animals the mockingbirds especially caught his attention. He saw three out of the four species of mockingbirds. Why did they have to be different?
Well the islands themselves are different! Some are older than the others, some are drier than the others, and some have highlands that completely change the environment of the island. We arrived to our third island today and we found a completely different scenario with species of plants and animals unique to Floreana. The morning we spent it on Punta Cormorant were there are no cormorants! This place got its name from a ship that sank named Cormorant. But we found other birds: flamingos! A coastal lagoon was decorated with these colorful birds and their reflections on the water.
Unfortunately due to human activity some species have gone extinct, like the mockingbird! But some of these smart birds flew to two satellite islets close to Floreana: Champion is home of 59 mockingbirds according to the CDRS. We went to look for them! And successfully found some of these emblematic birds and with that our count went to our third specie of mockingbird so far!
Snorkeling was a highlight and the afternoon was an introduction to the human history of the islands. We had some surprises in the afternoon. First bottlenose dolphins came to join us for lunch, later we found three Galápagos penguins on the lava rocks!
We also visited the famous Post Office Barrel. The barrel was placed here by whalers in 1792 in order to communicate the world. Our news became part of this tradition while we left postcards in the barrel. Who knows which visitor in the future will get them to hand deliver them and continue the tradition! We already became part of this fascinating story and today we got to see flamingos and penguins on the same day…only in the Galápagos Islands!
