Floreana Island
Today is an extremely special day. It is the very last day of the year and we all are excited about this. Like any regular day, this morning we offered our guests a pre-breakfast outing to the Post Office Bay, which is a historical place. In fact, it is one of the oldest mail system in South America.
The rest of the morning we focused on water activities. The temperature of the water this time of the year is very pleasant, and we had a great time snorkeling and viewing the marine world from the glass bottom boat. We saw large schools of tropical fish and we even had the opportunity to swim with the “stars of the islands” the Galapagos sea lions. They were swimming and playing with us and were very friendly.
In the afternoon we visited Punta Cormorant and took a walk to a lagoon where we saw flamingos nesting. That these lovely birds are nesting again on Floreana is a big event. The population of these birds is small in part due to problems with introduced predators like pigs, cats, dogs and rats.
We followed the trail to a white sand beach where green sea turtles have been nesting. December to March is the turtle nesting season. During these months the female turtles are often very close to the beaches, waiting for darkness to come out of the water to lay their eggs. We had an incredible time on shore this afternoon! Meanwhile, back on board the Polaris, our crew members were making all the preparations necessary to celebrate the New Year according to our Ecuadorian traditions.
Today is an extremely special day. It is the very last day of the year and we all are excited about this. Like any regular day, this morning we offered our guests a pre-breakfast outing to the Post Office Bay, which is a historical place. In fact, it is one of the oldest mail system in South America.
The rest of the morning we focused on water activities. The temperature of the water this time of the year is very pleasant, and we had a great time snorkeling and viewing the marine world from the glass bottom boat. We saw large schools of tropical fish and we even had the opportunity to swim with the “stars of the islands” the Galapagos sea lions. They were swimming and playing with us and were very friendly.
In the afternoon we visited Punta Cormorant and took a walk to a lagoon where we saw flamingos nesting. That these lovely birds are nesting again on Floreana is a big event. The population of these birds is small in part due to problems with introduced predators like pigs, cats, dogs and rats.
We followed the trail to a white sand beach where green sea turtles have been nesting. December to March is the turtle nesting season. During these months the female turtles are often very close to the beaches, waiting for darkness to come out of the water to lay their eggs. We had an incredible time on shore this afternoon! Meanwhile, back on board the Polaris, our crew members were making all the preparations necessary to celebrate the New Year according to our Ecuadorian traditions.
