Floreana Island
This island with its magical and mysterious enchantment always evokes different feelings among our visitors. Today it was no exception. Early in the morning we went to visit the historical site of Post Office Bay. On the way going there we made a Zodiac ride in a spectacular place called La Lobería, which is the Spanish local word to describe a sea lion colony. Sea lions are called wolves, “lobos”, in Spanish. For us these marine creatures do not roar, but haul and bark like wolves do. Today something noteworthy happened there with them. We observed a sudden commotion among some frigate birds; they were flying in circles in a single spot. After some minutes we finally had a clue: one of the birds was carrying a piece of the afterbirth of a sea lion in its beak. The birds were fighting over the fresh placenta remains of a newly born sea lion pup. What a sighting! Among the always-beloved sea lions there were many cacti that today were sincerely just glorious. The early morning light hit them in a sort of supernatural way. On Floreana Island we find a very interesting endemic prickly pear cactus, (Opuntia megasperma var. megasperma). This species and its variety is considered rare and vulnerable. The thickness of their main trunks and the height these plants reach is remarkable. The specific epithet and variety of the cactus name comes from the Greek mega, “large”, and spermus, “seed”, because it produces the largest seeds (8-13 mm long) of all the prickly pear cacti in Galapagos.
This island with its magical and mysterious enchantment always evokes different feelings among our visitors. Today it was no exception. Early in the morning we went to visit the historical site of Post Office Bay. On the way going there we made a Zodiac ride in a spectacular place called La Lobería, which is the Spanish local word to describe a sea lion colony. Sea lions are called wolves, “lobos”, in Spanish. For us these marine creatures do not roar, but haul and bark like wolves do. Today something noteworthy happened there with them. We observed a sudden commotion among some frigate birds; they were flying in circles in a single spot. After some minutes we finally had a clue: one of the birds was carrying a piece of the afterbirth of a sea lion in its beak. The birds were fighting over the fresh placenta remains of a newly born sea lion pup. What a sighting! Among the always-beloved sea lions there were many cacti that today were sincerely just glorious. The early morning light hit them in a sort of supernatural way. On Floreana Island we find a very interesting endemic prickly pear cactus, (Opuntia megasperma var. megasperma). This species and its variety is considered rare and vulnerable. The thickness of their main trunks and the height these plants reach is remarkable. The specific epithet and variety of the cactus name comes from the Greek mega, “large”, and spermus, “seed”, because it produces the largest seeds (8-13 mm long) of all the prickly pear cacti in Galapagos.
