Floreana Island
We started a fantastic day very early visiting the so-called “Post Office Barrel”, which remains one of the oldest functioning mailing systems of South America. Cards were read, cards were left, and cards were taken for delivery on arrival home.
Later on, our Captain repositioned the ship toward Champion, an islet on the northeastern coast of Floreana. There we focused on water activities of various kinds, some of which required getting wet (snorkeling and SCUBA diving), but another style of exploration allowed us a dry view of the undersea world by riding in a covered “glass-bottomed boat”.
The highlight of the morning was neither the islet, nor the great variety and numbers of tropical fishes we snorkeled with, but the sea lions. The juveniles we find at this site have a ball playing with us in the water. They seem to smile as they approach you at high speeds, and just before they touch you, turn away leaving your heart beating faster. Even the glass-bottomed boat had very close encounters with these youngsters. One sea lion hogged one entire glass panel for quite a while, belly up and bubbles out.
Sea lions are well adapted to the marine environment. They have well developed senses, but the most efficient is their eyesight as they spend long periods of time diving while foraging in dimly lit waters. Under low light conditions onshore or under water, the pinniped’s pupil dilates in a large circle to let in more light. On the other hand, in bright sunlight the pupil constricts to narrow vertical slits. Their eyes are light sensitive and hold a large numbers of rods, which are photoreceptor cells in the retina, that respond to low light.
The afternoon was quite spectacular in a totally different fashion. The brilliantly salmon pink flamingos danced solitary circles to stir up food from the murky bottom, or courted between flights from one end to another of the brackish water lagoon. Frigates hunted in the air waiting impatiently waiting for hatchlings to make a mistake, and leave their sandy protected chambers before the red sunset.
We started a fantastic day very early visiting the so-called “Post Office Barrel”, which remains one of the oldest functioning mailing systems of South America. Cards were read, cards were left, and cards were taken for delivery on arrival home.
Later on, our Captain repositioned the ship toward Champion, an islet on the northeastern coast of Floreana. There we focused on water activities of various kinds, some of which required getting wet (snorkeling and SCUBA diving), but another style of exploration allowed us a dry view of the undersea world by riding in a covered “glass-bottomed boat”.
The highlight of the morning was neither the islet, nor the great variety and numbers of tropical fishes we snorkeled with, but the sea lions. The juveniles we find at this site have a ball playing with us in the water. They seem to smile as they approach you at high speeds, and just before they touch you, turn away leaving your heart beating faster. Even the glass-bottomed boat had very close encounters with these youngsters. One sea lion hogged one entire glass panel for quite a while, belly up and bubbles out.
Sea lions are well adapted to the marine environment. They have well developed senses, but the most efficient is their eyesight as they spend long periods of time diving while foraging in dimly lit waters. Under low light conditions onshore or under water, the pinniped’s pupil dilates in a large circle to let in more light. On the other hand, in bright sunlight the pupil constricts to narrow vertical slits. Their eyes are light sensitive and hold a large numbers of rods, which are photoreceptor cells in the retina, that respond to low light.
The afternoon was quite spectacular in a totally different fashion. The brilliantly salmon pink flamingos danced solitary circles to stir up food from the murky bottom, or courted between flights from one end to another of the brackish water lagoon. Frigates hunted in the air waiting impatiently waiting for hatchlings to make a mistake, and leave their sandy protected chambers before the red sunset.
