Floreana Island
“The Mystery Island”. That is what the Galapageño people call Floreana Island. In the nineteen twenties, some people disappeared on this island and it remains a mystery. Today we visited Floreana and kept the group very close together just in case something happened on this enchanted island.
Early in the morning we visited a very traditional post office that has been working here since 1793, and some of our guests left postcards which received a famous stamp from a pelican bill, before getting placed in the famous barrel of Floreana’s Post Office Bay.
In the afternoon we had an easy walk on a green olivine beach, formed mainly from lava ash and the distinctive olivine crystals that came from the volcanic cone nearby. A few yards away from the beach was a lagoon formed of brackish water where we found the Galapagos flamingos. They were so very close that we could see their individual pink feathers and even the black fathers underneath their wings. The pink coloration they have is mainly caused by the food they eat, which is basically a type of tiny shrimp larvae called “Artemia salina” that live for several years in this brackish lagoon. Today we saw a good number of these beautiful birds, which was fortunate, as the population of them in the islands is very small, reaching only about 600 or 700 individuals in the entire archipelago.
In the late afternoon we returned to the ship, all of us with memories of these colorful creatures dancing on flat water that looks like a mirror, and the flamingos reflection doubling the delight.
“The Mystery Island”. That is what the Galapageño people call Floreana Island. In the nineteen twenties, some people disappeared on this island and it remains a mystery. Today we visited Floreana and kept the group very close together just in case something happened on this enchanted island.
Early in the morning we visited a very traditional post office that has been working here since 1793, and some of our guests left postcards which received a famous stamp from a pelican bill, before getting placed in the famous barrel of Floreana’s Post Office Bay.
In the afternoon we had an easy walk on a green olivine beach, formed mainly from lava ash and the distinctive olivine crystals that came from the volcanic cone nearby. A few yards away from the beach was a lagoon formed of brackish water where we found the Galapagos flamingos. They were so very close that we could see their individual pink feathers and even the black fathers underneath their wings. The pink coloration they have is mainly caused by the food they eat, which is basically a type of tiny shrimp larvae called “Artemia salina” that live for several years in this brackish lagoon. Today we saw a good number of these beautiful birds, which was fortunate, as the population of them in the islands is very small, reaching only about 600 or 700 individuals in the entire archipelago.
In the late afternoon we returned to the ship, all of us with memories of these colorful creatures dancing on flat water that looks like a mirror, and the flamingos reflection doubling the delight.
