Floreana and Isabela Island
It is a mere 6:30 in the morning and we are all ready for a new adventure. This time we are anchored by Floreana Island, known also as the mystery island. Most of us are ready to go out and take part in an old whaling tradition that is using the famous post office barrel. Many of us leave our own post cards in the barrel and also take some to hand deliver in different destinations around the world. Right afterwards, we took a Zodiac ride along the coast where many species of animals were to be seen. Blue footed boobies, green sea turtles and frigate birds were among few of the sightings. This was certainly a good start to our day.
After breakfast, we were ready to go out snorkelling and/or glass bottom boating. This morning we had the chance to swim with myriads of fish, sea lions and of course the highlight of the morning were a couple of white tipped reef sharks that decided to join us for a while.
As soon was we got back to the ship, the captain started lifting the anchor to move us to the southern part of Isabela Island, specifically to a town called Puerto Villamil. This town is where a small human settlement is located. Here, we have the chance to visit the breeding center of giant tortoises where finally, after a couple of days of traveling in the Galápagos, we got to see the famous Galápagos Giant tortoises. This breeding center holds many populations of giant tortoises from the island of Isabela.
After we finish our visit to the breeding center, we took a nice boardwalk through a series of wetlands where we found four flamingos. We were all excited to see them, and even though four is not that many, their coloration was so beautiful that we like to say that we prefer quality over quantity!
The weather was fabulous, the tortoises were great, the visit to the town was interesting, but to top it all, an amazing and unplanned appearance of a large school of manta rays (at least 50 of them) on our way back to the Polaris gave us the final touch to a perfect day. This was definitely a great extra bonus!
It is a mere 6:30 in the morning and we are all ready for a new adventure. This time we are anchored by Floreana Island, known also as the mystery island. Most of us are ready to go out and take part in an old whaling tradition that is using the famous post office barrel. Many of us leave our own post cards in the barrel and also take some to hand deliver in different destinations around the world. Right afterwards, we took a Zodiac ride along the coast where many species of animals were to be seen. Blue footed boobies, green sea turtles and frigate birds were among few of the sightings. This was certainly a good start to our day.
After breakfast, we were ready to go out snorkelling and/or glass bottom boating. This morning we had the chance to swim with myriads of fish, sea lions and of course the highlight of the morning were a couple of white tipped reef sharks that decided to join us for a while.
As soon was we got back to the ship, the captain started lifting the anchor to move us to the southern part of Isabela Island, specifically to a town called Puerto Villamil. This town is where a small human settlement is located. Here, we have the chance to visit the breeding center of giant tortoises where finally, after a couple of days of traveling in the Galápagos, we got to see the famous Galápagos Giant tortoises. This breeding center holds many populations of giant tortoises from the island of Isabela.
After we finish our visit to the breeding center, we took a nice boardwalk through a series of wetlands where we found four flamingos. We were all excited to see them, and even though four is not that many, their coloration was so beautiful that we like to say that we prefer quality over quantity!
The weather was fabulous, the tortoises were great, the visit to the town was interesting, but to top it all, an amazing and unplanned appearance of a large school of manta rays (at least 50 of them) on our way back to the Polaris gave us the final touch to a perfect day. This was definitely a great extra bonus!
