We arrived at the island of Floreana where a series of mysterious events took place between 1929-1934. This combined with the unique inhabits of this location make it a special place to visit. After a wet landing during a pre breakfast outing at Espanola island, we walked along a brackish water lagoon where we were lucky to spot several Greater flamingos feeding on small crustaceans that inhabit the sediments at the bottom of the lagoon. Soon we arrived at the other side of the lagoon, where we spotted a large sea turtle nesting ground and a few endemic birds nearby.
After breakfast, we went snorkelling around Champion islet and some of us went drift snorkelling while others chose to jump in shallower waters. Several varieties of tropical fish, Pacific green sea turtles, a couple of white tip reef sharks, a Galapagos shark, and playful sea lions spent the morning with us in the water.
During our navigation to our next destination we encountered a large pod of bottle nosed dolphins. After lunch we had a talk about fish species of the Galapagos followed by a visit to Post Office Bay where we picked up some post cards to be delivered and we dropped off ours to see how long they would take before they reached home. We have now followed this hand delivery mail tradition that started in 1793 by Captain James Colnett.
After the visit to the post office barrel we headed on a Zodiac ride along the coast in search of wildlife among the red mangroves and the intertidal zone. We spotted some young black tip reef sharks, a large rookery of cattle egrets, sea lions, rays and a couple of Galapagos penguins getting ready to rest for the night on some lava rocks. While some guests were on Zodiacs, others chose to kayak along the same route hoping to get a closer look. We were in luch because a group of baby sea lions followed us for a few minutes.
