Floreana Island
Our exploration today started early in the morning, as we set foot on one of the most famous bays in the entire archipelago, Post Office Bay. We landed here in the footsteps of hundreds of earlier visitors to these mysterious islands: in the early 17th and 18th centuries lots of pirates, privateers and buccaneers sailed these waters, followed by whalers and seal hunters until the early 20th century. These early visitors used the islands as a refuge, as a place to get a fresh meat supply and because this was the only place in the area where there was fresh water. In 1793 a British whaler, James Colnett, set up a box barrel behind one of the beaches of Floreana Island as a place to leave mail and correspondence so that those vessels setting their course back to Europe and the US could pick up the mail and ensure its hand delivery by the crew members. Nowadays, this tradition is still in place, though the whalers are no longer and it is only used by the modern day explorers of Galápagos.
During breakfast, we repositioned our ship just off a tiny satellite islet to the east of Floreana, where we indulged in water activities for the rest of the morning: glass bottom boat, deepwater snorkeling and Zodiac cruises. The snorkeling was particularly beautiful, and our guests had the chance to observe the fascinating marine ecosystem of the Galápagos, where among many sightings we had an encounter with a large diamond stingray, countless colorful fish and even blue-footed boobies diving in right next to us, in pursuit of the large schools of black-striped salemas.
Later in the afternoon we anchored in the sheltered bay formed by Cormorant Point, where we had a nice walk along the waterline of a brackish water lagoon to see the spectacular greater flamingoes just twenty yards away from us. Another wonderful day in this magical world!
Our exploration today started early in the morning, as we set foot on one of the most famous bays in the entire archipelago, Post Office Bay. We landed here in the footsteps of hundreds of earlier visitors to these mysterious islands: in the early 17th and 18th centuries lots of pirates, privateers and buccaneers sailed these waters, followed by whalers and seal hunters until the early 20th century. These early visitors used the islands as a refuge, as a place to get a fresh meat supply and because this was the only place in the area where there was fresh water. In 1793 a British whaler, James Colnett, set up a box barrel behind one of the beaches of Floreana Island as a place to leave mail and correspondence so that those vessels setting their course back to Europe and the US could pick up the mail and ensure its hand delivery by the crew members. Nowadays, this tradition is still in place, though the whalers are no longer and it is only used by the modern day explorers of Galápagos.
During breakfast, we repositioned our ship just off a tiny satellite islet to the east of Floreana, where we indulged in water activities for the rest of the morning: glass bottom boat, deepwater snorkeling and Zodiac cruises. The snorkeling was particularly beautiful, and our guests had the chance to observe the fascinating marine ecosystem of the Galápagos, where among many sightings we had an encounter with a large diamond stingray, countless colorful fish and even blue-footed boobies diving in right next to us, in pursuit of the large schools of black-striped salemas.
Later in the afternoon we anchored in the sheltered bay formed by Cormorant Point, where we had a nice walk along the waterline of a brackish water lagoon to see the spectacular greater flamingoes just twenty yards away from us. Another wonderful day in this magical world!
