Today we disembarked before breakfast on the Island of Floreana, where we landed on a green-colored beach, made of a semi-precious stone called olivine. The photography group soon walked by a brackish water lagoon where we spotted greater flamingos. We spent our time enjoying the most beautiful birds in the world and learning how to photograph them.
The other groups continued down a longer trail and arrived to a white coralline beach, where green sea turtles nest throughout the year. There were quite a few in the water, maybe resting from the previous night’s mating activities. We also saw many diamond-sting rays underneath the breaking waves – no snorkeling here!
Back on board, breakfast followed and then a short navigation to Champion Islet. We boarded Zodiacs to search the coastline for Floreana mockingbird, which became extinct on the main island due to severe predation by introduced animals like rats. Success! We found the bird. Some of us also snorkeled around the island and spotting many playful and curious sea lions. We also saw large schools of fish, including king angel fish, yellow surgeon fish, sea stars, sea urchins and a shark.
After our lunch, we headed to Post Office Bay, where we enjoyed water sports: snorkeling, kayaking, paddle boarding and Zodiac cruising! We finished the afternoon visiting the mail barrel in which postcards are dropped and picked to be hand-delivered to its final destination. This is a tradition started by whalers and pirates and continued by locals and visitors like us.
