Floreana Island
It is the third day of our expedition around the Galápagos Islands. Today we had the chance to visit the famous Post Office Bay. The mail barrel, which is found there, is still in use. We kept one of the oldest mail systems in South America alive this morning. Early, before breakfast, we disembarked with many postcards in our hands, with the hope of delivering them and picking up some. Once at the Post Office Barrel, and after a short explanation of the history of the place, we started reading, one by one, all the addresses on the postcards. If we heard a city near our hometown, we took the card. Many postcards were picked up by our guests today. Now they have the task to deliver them without using stamps, just as the tradition says.
After this short visit, the ship repositioned to a different place, Champion Islet, offshore of Floreana Island. It was time for water activities: glass bottom boat outings, snorkeling, and Zodiac rides. Without any doubt, I can tell that this is one of the best locations in Galápagos for snorkeling. We can see, around Champion, big schools of tropical water fish species. It is possible to see some cold water species and some from the Indo Pacific Ocean as well. This beautiful combination of species is possible due to the confluence of three main currents that bathe the Galápagos Islands. In addition to the many fish species, we were lucky to observe Galápagos sea lions, sea turtles, golden rays and even some spotted white-tipped reef sharks.
In the afternoon, the ship repositioned once again. This time we anchored in front of Punta Cormorant. We had an early afternoon program for those willing to exercise a bit and to explore the coastline aboard our kayak fleet.
In our final activity of the day we landed at Punta Cormorant beach. The beach we landed is classified as inorganic, for it is made of volcanic material. From this beach we went to a second one, mainly made from remains of coral, therefore classified as organic. In this beautiful white and fine sand beach we observed a nesting ground of Pacific green sea turtles.
On our way going from one beach to the other we saw Greater flamingos at a shallow brackish lagoon. Many other bird species were observed as well, including white cheeked Pintail ducks, Whimbrels, a Great Blue Heron, and more. By six in the afternoon we started heading back to the ship to continue with our expedition. This time the National Geographic Polaris went in a direction toward the western part of the Archipelago.
It is the third day of our expedition around the Galápagos Islands. Today we had the chance to visit the famous Post Office Bay. The mail barrel, which is found there, is still in use. We kept one of the oldest mail systems in South America alive this morning. Early, before breakfast, we disembarked with many postcards in our hands, with the hope of delivering them and picking up some. Once at the Post Office Barrel, and after a short explanation of the history of the place, we started reading, one by one, all the addresses on the postcards. If we heard a city near our hometown, we took the card. Many postcards were picked up by our guests today. Now they have the task to deliver them without using stamps, just as the tradition says.
After this short visit, the ship repositioned to a different place, Champion Islet, offshore of Floreana Island. It was time for water activities: glass bottom boat outings, snorkeling, and Zodiac rides. Without any doubt, I can tell that this is one of the best locations in Galápagos for snorkeling. We can see, around Champion, big schools of tropical water fish species. It is possible to see some cold water species and some from the Indo Pacific Ocean as well. This beautiful combination of species is possible due to the confluence of three main currents that bathe the Galápagos Islands. In addition to the many fish species, we were lucky to observe Galápagos sea lions, sea turtles, golden rays and even some spotted white-tipped reef sharks.
In the afternoon, the ship repositioned once again. This time we anchored in front of Punta Cormorant. We had an early afternoon program for those willing to exercise a bit and to explore the coastline aboard our kayak fleet.
In our final activity of the day we landed at Punta Cormorant beach. The beach we landed is classified as inorganic, for it is made of volcanic material. From this beach we went to a second one, mainly made from remains of coral, therefore classified as organic. In this beautiful white and fine sand beach we observed a nesting ground of Pacific green sea turtles.
On our way going from one beach to the other we saw Greater flamingos at a shallow brackish lagoon. Many other bird species were observed as well, including white cheeked Pintail ducks, Whimbrels, a Great Blue Heron, and more. By six in the afternoon we started heading back to the ship to continue with our expedition. This time the National Geographic Polaris went in a direction toward the western part of the Archipelago.
