Floreana Island was the first Island to be colonized in Galapagos after the Ecuadorian government took possession in 1832. Convicts from mainland Ecuador were sent to Floreana Island, hoping that someday they would become a successful story to tell, or probably was to take possession of this archipelago that once belonged to no one. This island has a very rich human history in Galapagos. When whalers depleted most of the cetaceans in the Atlantic Ocean they came to the Pacific to look for amazing sea creatures. They were hunted to extract their blubber, which back then, in early eighteen hundreds, was the only source to propel machinery. Floreana became a very important island to be visited by whalers, and the main reason was to collect giant tortoises as a food source and rain water for drinking. The same people set up a barrel in Post Office Bay. The idea was to have a link of communication between whalers and their loved ones in England. Today we spent the day visiting many different visitor sites that Floreana offers our dear National Geographic guests.
So our day started even before sunrise. We disembarked to visit a very important nesting ground for Pacific green sea turtles. They are nesting this time of the year, when the hot warm season is here in Galapagos. This factor is very important for the eggs’ incubation.
Later in the morning we had a chance to explore a 1 ½ square mile island known as Champion. This was a good opportunity to look for the Floreana mockingbird, which is very close to extinction. But as Floreana is being restored, we are hoping for another success story to tell. We finished our morning activities with deep water snorkeling in the same location. This site is considered to be one of the best for fish identification, and this morning would not be the exception.
For the afternoon, we visited the post office barrel to both collect and drop off post cards. We finished our day exploring some rockery islets full of wildlife by Zodiacs and by kayaks.
Today was another successful day in Galapagos.
