Floreana Island
Our day on Floreana Island started at 8AM so we needed to be up early for a little breakfast and coffee, 1 cup only as there are no facilities on any of the walks. After donning our life jackets we boarded out tender (much like a Zodiac) for o for out short ride to Floreana Island.
Our guide, Charly took us on a walk along the beach where we saw two blue-footed boobies dueling their wares to present themselves to a nearby female. The mating ritual of these birds is fascinating to watch.
As we walked along the beach we also saw a young flamingo resting at the shore. Flamingoes in the Galapagos are the same species as found in Florida. The beach was sandy but the nearby shoreline was very rocky. Seals enjoyed the entire area.
From the beach, our walk took us up a sand path to a brackish pond where flamingoes were feeding on small crustaceans, There were also a number of other sea birds in the area.
We traveled over a sandy path to another part of the island. Along the path were some different flowers that bloom on the island. The flowers in bloom right now flower all year round as this is the dry season in the Galapagos and most of the flowers bloomed in the wet season. The flowers we saw were all small but beautiful. We also got to see some other small wildlife along the path
The path ended at a sea turtle nesting area on a sandy beach. There were a few turtles and rays in the water which were hard to see. The baby but we did see some crabs and some other wildlife. The baby sea turtles generally come our of the sand at night to try and avoid predators who were hovering above us just waiting for a rogue turtle.
We returned to our ship at 10AM just in time to quickly change for a snorkel tour out to an island near Espanola. The tender ride took about 45 minutes though some pretty choppy water. We jumped into water that our naturalist guide called “refreshing”. The water was colder than any I’ve ever snorkeled in. It was about 60 degrees F. Jumping in was quite a shock, even with a wetsuit. My body did warm up a bit in the water thanks to the wetsuites, but it was still cold. We spent about 30 minutes in the eater and ended up seeing a number of different fish. The swim was enjoyable but everyone was very happy to re-board the tender and head back to the ship for lunch.
There was time for lunch and a brief rest before heading out to another excursion in late afternoon. We chose a tender ride so we could just sit and enjoy the nature. The morning was pretty tiring. Our excursion took us near some young mangrove trees where we saw blue-footed boobies, seals, pelicans, lava heron, Sally Lightfoot crabs and many other varieties of birds..
Following the tender ride we did a beach walk to the "“Old Post Office” which is a wine barrel where visitors drop off post cards addressed to themselves. Visitors also look for a post card near their home which they are obligated to hand deliver. We found a post card from Pittsford, a town right near our home so will deliver it when we return home. The post office was established by whalers and other seafarers to get word back to their homes.
Back on the ship we had about an hour to rest before a pre-dinner wine and cheese get together in the lounge. Each evening there is a talk followed by a preview of the following day;’s activities. Tonight’s talk was a Q&A session with the ship’s Matra’d, the chip’s chief chef and the ship’s chief naturalist.
Following the talk we had dinner in the dining room and then headed back to our cabin. It was a pretty long and busy day but very enjoyable especially getting to enjoy the time with old friends and new friends.