Floreana Island
Although Floreana is considered one of the oldest islands in the Galápagos, this island conserves beautiful landscapes with a halo of mysteries due to its highlands, which are always overcast. Floreana has a small village at the west, called Puerto Velasco Ibarra, which was the political capital of Galápagos when Mr. Juan Jose Flores took possession of the archipelago in 1832.
After a long navigation from Isabela Island, finally, early in the morning, we dropped anchor in Floreana; our guests had an optional pre-breakfast wake-up call to visit the enigmatic barrel at Post Office Bay, the mute witness of many events that have occurred since the pirate and whaler years, when they used the barrel to send or receive news from their relatives. Our guests repeated the same procedure today, sending their postcards by the same way – just like in the ancient times.
After breakfast, we drove the Zodiacs to Champion Islet to look for the elusive Floreana mockingbird, whose population was reduced to no more than a hundred due to depredation suffered at the hands of introduced animals on Floreana. Champion looked different. It was completely green due to recent rainfalls, which are normal during this season. Of course it was easy to find the mockingbird and other land birds fluttering everywhere.
After the Zodiac ride, we went back to the same islet to snorkel, which was gorgeous. We saw many different species of tropical fish, including white tipped reef sharks. Definitely the most interesting during the snorkeling were the playful sea lions, which enjoyed our youngest guests swimming and repeating movements, twisting our bodies just like them.
In the afternoon, we started our activities with kayaking along Punta Cormorant. Ernesto (another Naturalist) was in charge to lead our guests, who enjoyed encounters with many curious sea turtles showing their heads each time when they needed to breathe. On the rocks blue footed boobies and frigate birds rested and on the slope of the hills, another group nested.
It was four o’clock, when we started the last activity at Floreana: landing at the beach at Punta Cormorant. The greenish beach looked very small because of the high tide. We walked along a short trail, which connected with another beach, which had white sand. There we observed many sea turtles’ tracks and nests, and in the water sting rays trying to hide their bodies in the sand, almost impossible due to the waves. We moved ahead to the flamingos’ lagoon; I counted fifty three of them. They looked magnificent with their pink color and their heads in the mud. While one of them was landing, on the air more than sixty whimbrels flew over our heads, as if telling us they are marvelous too.
It was 6 o’clock when we returned to the landing beach, and the sunset was spectacular. In the sky, many other birds began the procession, moving back home as if telling us the day was finishing.
