Floreana and Isabela Islands
Bright and early this morning, we anchored in a place that was very popular in the 1800s when it was visited by literally hundreds of whalers: the Post Office Bay. Some of our guests that made the pre-breakfast outing picked up some postcards that had been sitting in the rickety barrel here for many weeks, even months. The way this eccentric mail system works is that visitors to the Galápagos pick up mail to hand deliver to people whom someone that has visited the archipelago in the past has addressed a note to, sometimes all around the world. This is often a very efficient mailing system and great fun in that it is an ancient whaling system that dates back to the eighteenth century and continues on to this day.
After this visit, we explored the rich underwater world of the area when snorkelling and riding the glass bottom boat round an islet called Champion. The snorkelling was truly spectacular apart from the hundreds of fish of all shapes, sizes and colours schooling all around us and the dozens of young sealions performing aquatic acrobatics. We also had a very unexpected surprise: two immature Galápagos penguins not usually found in the area suddenly started flitting among us and curiously inspecting us – even nibbling at the odd finger!
Once on board, we settled in to a couple of interesting presentations – one about the infamous human history of Galápagos and the other about the oceanography of the area – and a bountiful lunch as we set sail towards the large island of Isabela.
Isabela is one of the youngest islands in our archipelago, but also one of the most beautiful with regards to wildlife and landscapes. We disembarked on a small dock belonging to a charming little fishing village surrounded by rare wetlands and a wonderful beach. Our main destination was a land tortoise breeding centre, where the endangered tortoise populations of the two southern volcanoes of the island are being rescued, both from humans and lava flows!
It was particularly interesting because one of the breeders showed us a real tortoise egg and even a hatchling just a few weeks old whose protective bony casing had not even sealed yet. As the afternoon came to a close, we came strolling back along a beautiful white coralline beach, receiving the last rays of the Galápagos sunset.
Bright and early this morning, we anchored in a place that was very popular in the 1800s when it was visited by literally hundreds of whalers: the Post Office Bay. Some of our guests that made the pre-breakfast outing picked up some postcards that had been sitting in the rickety barrel here for many weeks, even months. The way this eccentric mail system works is that visitors to the Galápagos pick up mail to hand deliver to people whom someone that has visited the archipelago in the past has addressed a note to, sometimes all around the world. This is often a very efficient mailing system and great fun in that it is an ancient whaling system that dates back to the eighteenth century and continues on to this day.
After this visit, we explored the rich underwater world of the area when snorkelling and riding the glass bottom boat round an islet called Champion. The snorkelling was truly spectacular apart from the hundreds of fish of all shapes, sizes and colours schooling all around us and the dozens of young sealions performing aquatic acrobatics. We also had a very unexpected surprise: two immature Galápagos penguins not usually found in the area suddenly started flitting among us and curiously inspecting us – even nibbling at the odd finger!
Once on board, we settled in to a couple of interesting presentations – one about the infamous human history of Galápagos and the other about the oceanography of the area – and a bountiful lunch as we set sail towards the large island of Isabela.
Isabela is one of the youngest islands in our archipelago, but also one of the most beautiful with regards to wildlife and landscapes. We disembarked on a small dock belonging to a charming little fishing village surrounded by rare wetlands and a wonderful beach. Our main destination was a land tortoise breeding centre, where the endangered tortoise populations of the two southern volcanoes of the island are being rescued, both from humans and lava flows!
It was particularly interesting because one of the breeders showed us a real tortoise egg and even a hatchling just a few weeks old whose protective bony casing had not even sealed yet. As the afternoon came to a close, we came strolling back along a beautiful white coralline beach, receiving the last rays of the Galápagos sunset.
