I knew it the minute I got up: this is going to be one of those gorgeous, perfect days in Galapagos. At 5:30 am, anchored in Post Office Bay, Floreana Island, a couple of us were already enjoying the clear, nicely colored sky and the rising sun on the Teak deck. After some coffee and a snack almost everybody went out at 6:30 am to the Post barrel, placed in 1793 by whalers. The original barrel has long been gone and replaced several times but the tradition stayed of leaving mail (no stamps needed) and taking home some of the cards left by other travelers to the islands for "hand delivering". New friends can be easily made like this, sharing the Galapagos experiences!
After breakfast we started the second part of the morning at Champion island, an islet very close to Floreana, snorkeling with abundant fish and sea lions that came around to play with us or staying dry observing the marine life from the glass bottom boat. The water was cool but the fish were so many and the sun so shiny we forgot about that. Afterwards we had a possibility to go search for the unique Charles mocking bird, only present on this tiny island of Champion. Cruising close to the shore to be able to find the mocking bird we saw this red-billed tropicbird out in the open and in the sun, a rare event, as they either fly very fast above us or disappear in little crevices of steep slopes and cliffs.
This bird is the most elegant one of the islands, having the black stripe going from the eye to the back of the neck, a beautiful red bill, two thin long tail feathers and yellow legs. I choose to show you this close up picture, missing out on the elegant long tail feathers since this shows you just a bit of the yellow legs which are so rare to observe. You can't see them when they fly or, if ever in the open, they are always tucked away beneath them. These birds have lots of difficulty in walking on land, they rather clumsily stumble forward. Indeed the legs are short and hardly ever used as they feed on the ocean, flying far away from land (called pelagic) to plunge dive for squid, flying fish and herring-like fish and they fly directly into the crevices without having to walk. The juveniles, when ready to leave the nest, look like the adults but have a yellow beak. Two more species of tropicbirds are found in the world.
In the afternoon, at Punta Cormorant we saw eleven flamingoes, and a few guests managed to see the medium tree finch, unique to Floreana and not easy to observe at this visitor point, and turtles were in the water at the soft powder-like white beach.
The day ended as gorgeous and perfect as it started: one of the most spectacular sunsets I have seen!
