Floreana Island
This morning we started with an early, pre-breakfast visit to one of the most interesting historical sites in the entire archipelago: the Post Office Bay. This place was visited by whalers, buccaneers and seal hunters in the early 17th and 18th centuries, and they chose this particular spot to set up a post barrel 1793, presumably by British Captain James Colnett. The aim was to set up an honor system among seamen where individuals and captains could leave both private and official mail in a designated area, to be picked up by vessels that were homeward-bound and hand-delivered by the crew. Nowadays, over two hundred years later, this whaling tradition still works and our visitors are using this mail system, keeping this custom alive. One of our guests even found a card, left months earlier, in the barrel addressed to her!
Later we repositioned the ship in front of a little satellite islet off Floreana Island, called Champion. This place is considered by Polaris staff to be one of the very best snorkeling sites in the Galápagos, and it lived up to its expectations as the deep water snorkeling was fantastic! On immersing ourselves in the cool water, we swam with the most playful sea lions you can imagine, green sea turtles, white-tipped reef sharks, boobies diving around the swimmers after schools of tiny fish and countless numbers of different species of tropical fish with beautiful colors. We continued exploring the islet with glass-bottom boat outings and Zodiac cruises too.
Later on we weighed anchor and repositioned the Polaris next to Punta Cormorant where, after kayaking and beach activities, we had a fascinating walk beside a brackish-water lagoon where we saw the beautiful greater flamingoes with their bright pink color. We also explored two lovely and very different beaches: one made up of green volcanic crystal “olivine” sand, and the other of ground organic matter such as white coral sand. Once back on board, we enjoyed a lovely sunset over the enchanted islands of the Galápagos.
This morning we started with an early, pre-breakfast visit to one of the most interesting historical sites in the entire archipelago: the Post Office Bay. This place was visited by whalers, buccaneers and seal hunters in the early 17th and 18th centuries, and they chose this particular spot to set up a post barrel 1793, presumably by British Captain James Colnett. The aim was to set up an honor system among seamen where individuals and captains could leave both private and official mail in a designated area, to be picked up by vessels that were homeward-bound and hand-delivered by the crew. Nowadays, over two hundred years later, this whaling tradition still works and our visitors are using this mail system, keeping this custom alive. One of our guests even found a card, left months earlier, in the barrel addressed to her!
Later we repositioned the ship in front of a little satellite islet off Floreana Island, called Champion. This place is considered by Polaris staff to be one of the very best snorkeling sites in the Galápagos, and it lived up to its expectations as the deep water snorkeling was fantastic! On immersing ourselves in the cool water, we swam with the most playful sea lions you can imagine, green sea turtles, white-tipped reef sharks, boobies diving around the swimmers after schools of tiny fish and countless numbers of different species of tropical fish with beautiful colors. We continued exploring the islet with glass-bottom boat outings and Zodiac cruises too.
Later on we weighed anchor and repositioned the Polaris next to Punta Cormorant where, after kayaking and beach activities, we had a fascinating walk beside a brackish-water lagoon where we saw the beautiful greater flamingoes with their bright pink color. We also explored two lovely and very different beaches: one made up of green volcanic crystal “olivine” sand, and the other of ground organic matter such as white coral sand. Once back on board, we enjoyed a lovely sunset over the enchanted islands of the Galápagos.
