As the sun rises its rays show the elegance of an Island that has been visited by early settlers, whalers, pirates and more recently, tourists. This Island is Floreana, named after the first Ecuadorian president.

The first place we visited was Punta Cormorant. This place has a variety of ecosystems including organic and inorganic beaches and a brackish water lagoon where we found some Greater flamingos. The trail gave us a good example of how the islands change with the dry season and the foliage of the vegetation dies off. Along the walk the incense tree forest enveloped everyone in its particular essence to repel insects. At the end of the hike there was a nesting site for the Pacific green sea turtles which come to deposit their precious leathery eggs. Our guests learned a little bit more about the process the turtles follow during the breeding cycle and how it evolves into nesting. Once we finished with our walk we headed back to the ship for some well-deserved breakfast.

Soon the National Geographic Islander moved to the second destination of the day, Champion Islet. This place is more than special due to the fact that there are only two islets next to Floreana where the Floreana mockingbird survives after been threatened by feral cats and losing their habitat to donkeys and goats. So we deployed the Zodiacs to discover the islet in search of this particular species and others-tropic birds, sea lions and boobies. Later in this same place we snorkelled in search of marine species. This location was full of tropical fish, white tipped sharks, schools of rays and the ever playful baby sea lions.

During the afternoon more activities filled the schedule with first a short walk to the Post Office Bay. It was a popular stop for whalers and others, and now by us. This is a very old mailing system where one leaves postcards in the box, so others visiting the Galapagos will eventually deliver it to its ultimate destination.

Our final excursion of the day were kayaking and Zodiac rides. Both activities happened along the shore with more sea lion colonies, boobies and the more elusive Galapagos penguin.

It was another wonderful day in this paradise known as the Galapagos!