Floreana and Isabela Islands
Early in the morning, our first activity was a delightful one. We went to visit the world famous post office barrel located on this paradisiacal island. This singular place has been a hand delivery postal system for many centuries. We continued with this peculiar tradition. With hopes and good spirits some of our guests found cards that were addressed to places they knew. They will go to these destinations keeping alive a tradition that is both amusing and historical. Following this short stop by Post Office Bay, we took a wonderful Zodiac rides along the coastline of an idyllical place called “La Loberia.” There we enjoyed watching sea lions, marine iguanas, sea turtles, Galápagos penguins, and the spectacular scenery of huge cacti growing on black lava surrounded by shallow turquoise waters. As we cruised to our next anchorage off Champion Islet to the east of Floreana, we felt that our snorkeling outing was going to be great. The combination of bright sun and clear water provided us with excellent visibility. There were huge schools of king angel fish, Moorish idols, and best of all, several cheerful young sea lions which spun and twirled among us as we swam along. White tipped sharks and the exciting surprise of a Galápagos penguin sighting completed a truly remarkable snorkeling outing. It was fabulous! In the picture you can see one of the many fish species we spotted today. The spotfin burrfish (Chilomycterus reticulates) is certainly a beautiful porcupine fish. Normally this fish species is quite shy, but in this occasion, this one showed curiosity approaching the lenses of our underwater video camera. This porcupine fish has characteristic big eyes and a dusky band under them giving it a rather comical appearance.
The afternoon found us anchored just in front of Puerto Villamil. In this beautiful town we put in practice many and diverse activities that satisfied the most demanding expectations of our guests this week. Swimming or strolling on a white beach, walking on a boardwalk among mangroves and little brackish lagoons were some of them. A visit to the breeding giant tortoises’ center was a favorite to most of us. In this place, we witnessed the titanic efforts that have and are being made in order to save and restore the endangered subspecies of giant tortoises on Isabela Island. We had the luck and the privilege to see some baby tortoises that just hatched; they were only some hours old! We came back on board just hardly waiting to see what new surprises tomorrow will bring to our expedition around the enchanted islands.
Early in the morning, our first activity was a delightful one. We went to visit the world famous post office barrel located on this paradisiacal island. This singular place has been a hand delivery postal system for many centuries. We continued with this peculiar tradition. With hopes and good spirits some of our guests found cards that were addressed to places they knew. They will go to these destinations keeping alive a tradition that is both amusing and historical. Following this short stop by Post Office Bay, we took a wonderful Zodiac rides along the coastline of an idyllical place called “La Loberia.” There we enjoyed watching sea lions, marine iguanas, sea turtles, Galápagos penguins, and the spectacular scenery of huge cacti growing on black lava surrounded by shallow turquoise waters. As we cruised to our next anchorage off Champion Islet to the east of Floreana, we felt that our snorkeling outing was going to be great. The combination of bright sun and clear water provided us with excellent visibility. There were huge schools of king angel fish, Moorish idols, and best of all, several cheerful young sea lions which spun and twirled among us as we swam along. White tipped sharks and the exciting surprise of a Galápagos penguin sighting completed a truly remarkable snorkeling outing. It was fabulous! In the picture you can see one of the many fish species we spotted today. The spotfin burrfish (Chilomycterus reticulates) is certainly a beautiful porcupine fish. Normally this fish species is quite shy, but in this occasion, this one showed curiosity approaching the lenses of our underwater video camera. This porcupine fish has characteristic big eyes and a dusky band under them giving it a rather comical appearance.
The afternoon found us anchored just in front of Puerto Villamil. In this beautiful town we put in practice many and diverse activities that satisfied the most demanding expectations of our guests this week. Swimming or strolling on a white beach, walking on a boardwalk among mangroves and little brackish lagoons were some of them. A visit to the breeding giant tortoises’ center was a favorite to most of us. In this place, we witnessed the titanic efforts that have and are being made in order to save and restore the endangered subspecies of giant tortoises on Isabela Island. We had the luck and the privilege to see some baby tortoises that just hatched; they were only some hours old! We came back on board just hardly waiting to see what new surprises tomorrow will bring to our expedition around the enchanted islands.
