Floreana and Isabela Islands
Our day started in the nice fresh hours of the morning, visiting one of the oldest islands in the archipelago which at the same time had the first human settlement sent in 1832, when Ecuador claimed this territory. We landed on Post office bay and looked through the letters and postcards inside the famous barrel of Floreana and took a few to hand deliver. The tradition of taking letters and hand delivering them began with the early visitors of our archipelago: whalers.
Perhaps stopping on this island was a big relief for some of these whalers, after spending several months on their ships. They used to go ashore to get water, leave their mail and also take letters to hand deliver them. We had a lot of fun following this very old tradition.
We went around Champion Islet and had a wonderful time snorkeling with sea lions, manta rays, and thousands of fish all over the area. Here we got to see the rare and elusive Floreana mockingbird.
For the afternoon we visited the charming village of Puerto Villamil, located in the southern side of Isabela Island. This town is the home of one of the most successful programs of conservation in the archipelago: the rearing tortoises in captivity program. When the juvenile tortoises become five years old they are repatriated to the island of origin of the parental population, in this case in particular, it will be Isabela Island. The great genetic variety of this island is very impressive, not only each volcano has its own distinctive population of tortoise, but several sub-varieties can be found in the same volcano. This program has been going on for several years and everyone is very proud of its great success. This has taken a great amount of effort, patience, some sacrifice and a lot of hope. Even when at times things look difficult, all of those involved in this program do their best, and now we can see several races increasing their numbers and surviving successfully in the wild.
After enjoying a nice stroll along the sandy shore line we returned aboard to share some of the highlights and the wonderful time we had today together in this magical place.
Our day started in the nice fresh hours of the morning, visiting one of the oldest islands in the archipelago which at the same time had the first human settlement sent in 1832, when Ecuador claimed this territory. We landed on Post office bay and looked through the letters and postcards inside the famous barrel of Floreana and took a few to hand deliver. The tradition of taking letters and hand delivering them began with the early visitors of our archipelago: whalers.
Perhaps stopping on this island was a big relief for some of these whalers, after spending several months on their ships. They used to go ashore to get water, leave their mail and also take letters to hand deliver them. We had a lot of fun following this very old tradition.
We went around Champion Islet and had a wonderful time snorkeling with sea lions, manta rays, and thousands of fish all over the area. Here we got to see the rare and elusive Floreana mockingbird.
For the afternoon we visited the charming village of Puerto Villamil, located in the southern side of Isabela Island. This town is the home of one of the most successful programs of conservation in the archipelago: the rearing tortoises in captivity program. When the juvenile tortoises become five years old they are repatriated to the island of origin of the parental population, in this case in particular, it will be Isabela Island. The great genetic variety of this island is very impressive, not only each volcano has its own distinctive population of tortoise, but several sub-varieties can be found in the same volcano. This program has been going on for several years and everyone is very proud of its great success. This has taken a great amount of effort, patience, some sacrifice and a lot of hope. Even when at times things look difficult, all of those involved in this program do their best, and now we can see several races increasing their numbers and surviving successfully in the wild.
After enjoying a nice stroll along the sandy shore line we returned aboard to share some of the highlights and the wonderful time we had today together in this magical place.
