Floreana Island
In the early hours of the day we headed ashore to explore Punta Cormorant. This morning we were very fortunate as we encountered some flamingoes. It was a lucky encounter as we have not seen these birds in a while. The population is well distributed around the islands with brackish water ponds, where they can find food. We also found a yellow-crowned heron looking for food around the intertidal zone on the beach. That heron gave us a show as it caught a juvenile tiger snake eel by pulling it right out of the wet sand. Then, after killing its prey, it left it there in the sand.
We also enjoyed listening to finches singing all around us. The recent rains are bringing a new opportunity for all land birds to mate and reproduce. It is incredible how fast the vegetation has become so green in just a matter of two weeks. All the Palo Santo trees are now covered with leaves and flowers, which in turn become food supply for finches and warblers.
After breakfast back on board, we went to Champion Islet; there we snorkeled, and Galápagos sea lions came to play with us. Some of us went in the glass-bottom boat and saw many different species of fish; others went on a Zodiac ride along the coast of Champion Islet, where we found lots of sea lions and several species of seabirds, such as brown pelicans, Nazca boobies, blue-footed boobies, and red-billed tropicbirds. It was a very rewarding morning; we saw all kinds of wildlife, on land and in the water.
For the second part of our day we went to Post Office Bay, where we went kayaking and for a Zodiac ride along the coast of a place known as Loberia, where Galápagos sea lions have a large colony. Besides finding sea lions we also saw colorful Galápagos marine iguanas, great blue herons, boobies and green sea turtles.
Later we went to deliver some mail at the wooden barrel of Post Office Bay. We followed the ancient whaler’s tradition and took some letters to hand deliver back home. This is perhaps the oldest mailing system on this side of the Pacific.
As we left Floreana behind we had a great sunset and some dolphins showed briefly as the night started to fall.
