Floreana
This morning dawned partly cloudy, breezy and calm; and we particularly appreciated the calm after a pretty intense night of rock and roll while we rounded the southern coast of Isabela Island. I gave an optional, quiet wake up call at 6:30 a.m. and invited everyone to join us for an outing to Post Office Bay. We heard a wild story about the Baroness and her three lovers, sorted through the pile of post cards for some to deliver back home and left cards of our own. Back on the ship at 8:00 a.m. we dug into a bountiful buffet breakfast, starring eggs benedict, which we thoroughly appreciated.
We donned our wet suits and braved the chilly ocean off Champion Islet: 66 degrees F was what the thermometer recorded but there were patches that felt even cooler than that to me. Where we entered, on the leeward side of the islet, there were huge schools of feeding fish and boobies diving to feed on the schools! There were dozens and dozens of brightly colored king angel fish just below the surface, and deeper there were grunts and creole fish and some of us even saw several white tipped reef sharks. But the sea lions as usual stole the show. They swam gracefully among us and played sea lion “chicken” by coming straight at us at full speed and making a swift last minute turn.
Among the rocks on the ocean floor, there were hundreds of pencil spin sea urchins and several species of sea stars; blue and chocolate chip sea stars were the most abundant and easy to observe. When our teeth began to chatter we climbed the ladders to board the Zodiacs which whisked us back to the ship, where delicious hot chocolate and hot showers were waiting. Two Zodiacs of guests ventured along the shoreline of Champion and everyone who had hoped to was able to see and identify the rare Floreana mocking bird.
In the afternoon we had two rounds of kayaks. It was windy and chilly but everyone had a good time – even those of us who got quite wet. We saw sea turtles and sea lions from the boats and going at times against the wind and the current worked off some of the large Peruvian lunch we had indulged in. At 4:00 p.m. we made a wet landing on the greenish olivine beach at Punta Cormorant. We followed a cinder trail to the shore of a brackish lagoon where we found over twenty flamingos feeding and resting. We hiked up and over a small hill and descended to a lovely beach of fine white sand. Just off shore we spotted a half dozen rays, and several sea turtles. There were fresh turtle tracks in the sand so we know that the nesting season has begun.
This morning dawned partly cloudy, breezy and calm; and we particularly appreciated the calm after a pretty intense night of rock and roll while we rounded the southern coast of Isabela Island. I gave an optional, quiet wake up call at 6:30 a.m. and invited everyone to join us for an outing to Post Office Bay. We heard a wild story about the Baroness and her three lovers, sorted through the pile of post cards for some to deliver back home and left cards of our own. Back on the ship at 8:00 a.m. we dug into a bountiful buffet breakfast, starring eggs benedict, which we thoroughly appreciated.
We donned our wet suits and braved the chilly ocean off Champion Islet: 66 degrees F was what the thermometer recorded but there were patches that felt even cooler than that to me. Where we entered, on the leeward side of the islet, there were huge schools of feeding fish and boobies diving to feed on the schools! There were dozens and dozens of brightly colored king angel fish just below the surface, and deeper there were grunts and creole fish and some of us even saw several white tipped reef sharks. But the sea lions as usual stole the show. They swam gracefully among us and played sea lion “chicken” by coming straight at us at full speed and making a swift last minute turn.
Among the rocks on the ocean floor, there were hundreds of pencil spin sea urchins and several species of sea stars; blue and chocolate chip sea stars were the most abundant and easy to observe. When our teeth began to chatter we climbed the ladders to board the Zodiacs which whisked us back to the ship, where delicious hot chocolate and hot showers were waiting. Two Zodiacs of guests ventured along the shoreline of Champion and everyone who had hoped to was able to see and identify the rare Floreana mocking bird.
In the afternoon we had two rounds of kayaks. It was windy and chilly but everyone had a good time – even those of us who got quite wet. We saw sea turtles and sea lions from the boats and going at times against the wind and the current worked off some of the large Peruvian lunch we had indulged in. At 4:00 p.m. we made a wet landing on the greenish olivine beach at Punta Cormorant. We followed a cinder trail to the shore of a brackish lagoon where we found over twenty flamingos feeding and resting. We hiked up and over a small hill and descended to a lovely beach of fine white sand. Just off shore we spotted a half dozen rays, and several sea turtles. There were fresh turtle tracks in the sand so we know that the nesting season has begun.
