Floreana Island
We started our day with a pre-breakfast outing to one of the most famous historical sites of the archipelago: Post Office Bay. Hoping to deliver our mail, without using stamps as the tradition dictates, we picked up and left several postcards and messages. Later in the morning, we went to Champion Islet, one of the best snorkelling sites in the Galápagos Archipelago. This location is a real underwater paradise due to its richness in wildlife. It is a place where many colorful fish species and invertebrates are seen everywhere, and it was particularly spectacular today. Sea stars like the descriptively named chocolate chip sea star (Nidorellia armata) and the blue sea star (Phataria unifascialis) are striking. Exquisite symmetrical symbols of marine life, sea stars have always been much admired as marine critters. Galápagos sea lions with their cheerful and acrobatic movements were true favorites of all. With amazement we observed how these marine mammals were zooming in front of our astonished eyes. Some juvenile sea lions played tricks on us by blowing bubbles at our masks! One of these youngsters played tirelessly with a blue sea star, causing laughter and delight in their observers.
In the afternoon we visited another location on Floreana Island, Punta Cormorant. At this visitors’ site, we found two major attractions: an idyllic lagoon with greater flamingos and a coralline white beach that is considered a marine turtle nesting sanctuary. Reluctantly, we came back on board with our minds filled with new sightings and experiences. We can hardly wait to see what more our expedition will bring to our lives in the days to come.
We started our day with a pre-breakfast outing to one of the most famous historical sites of the archipelago: Post Office Bay. Hoping to deliver our mail, without using stamps as the tradition dictates, we picked up and left several postcards and messages. Later in the morning, we went to Champion Islet, one of the best snorkelling sites in the Galápagos Archipelago. This location is a real underwater paradise due to its richness in wildlife. It is a place where many colorful fish species and invertebrates are seen everywhere, and it was particularly spectacular today. Sea stars like the descriptively named chocolate chip sea star (Nidorellia armata) and the blue sea star (Phataria unifascialis) are striking. Exquisite symmetrical symbols of marine life, sea stars have always been much admired as marine critters. Galápagos sea lions with their cheerful and acrobatic movements were true favorites of all. With amazement we observed how these marine mammals were zooming in front of our astonished eyes. Some juvenile sea lions played tricks on us by blowing bubbles at our masks! One of these youngsters played tirelessly with a blue sea star, causing laughter and delight in their observers.
In the afternoon we visited another location on Floreana Island, Punta Cormorant. At this visitors’ site, we found two major attractions: an idyllic lagoon with greater flamingos and a coralline white beach that is considered a marine turtle nesting sanctuary. Reluctantly, we came back on board with our minds filled with new sightings and experiences. We can hardly wait to see what more our expedition will bring to our lives in the days to come.
