Floreana Island & Champion Islet
Today most of us woke up earlier than usual to do a visit before breakfast, to one of the most visited places since the 1700’s: Floreana’s Post Office Barrel, used by pirates, buccaneers and whalers. Nowadays it is still working and in order to keep the “tradition” we sent postcards and letters to friends and family.
Later in the morning we went on a panga ride around Champion Islet, where we could observe one of the endangered birds, the Floreana mockingbird that hops from one prickly pear cactus to another. We also met the swallowed tail gulls, Nazca boobies, brown noddies and the gracious sea lions. After this we headed back on board to get ready for snorkeling in the same area.
Once we were in the water, the current took us around the islet, while we enjoyed the company of schools of fishes, quite a few white-tipped reef sharks and some sea lions.
In the afternoon we had more activities for the adventurous: kayaking! For the ones that wanted to take it slow, they went to relax on the beach. Later everyone went for the exploration of Pt. Cormorant: a walk on a green sand beach (due to the olivine crystals), a white powdery sand beach (made by the parrot fishes) and to a brackish water lagoon where we spotted flamingos and white checked pintail ducks.
Then back to our sailing home the National Geographic Polaris to continue our voyage.
Today most of us woke up earlier than usual to do a visit before breakfast, to one of the most visited places since the 1700’s: Floreana’s Post Office Barrel, used by pirates, buccaneers and whalers. Nowadays it is still working and in order to keep the “tradition” we sent postcards and letters to friends and family.
Later in the morning we went on a panga ride around Champion Islet, where we could observe one of the endangered birds, the Floreana mockingbird that hops from one prickly pear cactus to another. We also met the swallowed tail gulls, Nazca boobies, brown noddies and the gracious sea lions. After this we headed back on board to get ready for snorkeling in the same area.
Once we were in the water, the current took us around the islet, while we enjoyed the company of schools of fishes, quite a few white-tipped reef sharks and some sea lions.
In the afternoon we had more activities for the adventurous: kayaking! For the ones that wanted to take it slow, they went to relax on the beach. Later everyone went for the exploration of Pt. Cormorant: a walk on a green sand beach (due to the olivine crystals), a white powdery sand beach (made by the parrot fishes) and to a brackish water lagoon where we spotted flamingos and white checked pintail ducks.
Then back to our sailing home the National Geographic Polaris to continue our voyage.
