Ecuador: Galapagos Islands – Isla Floreana
Post Office Bay dates back to the 18th Century where British and American whalers would pick up post for those close to their destination. The majority of the post was for the USA, reflecting the visitor demographics of the Galapagos,
We identified 6 postcards that could be hand-delivered in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne), the UK and Canada. The instruction given to us by Alexis (our guide) was that it had to be hand-delivered and accompanied by wine and cheese.
Isla Floreana has two failed tuna canning factories, a Norwegian and Japanese, all that remains today are a few bits of rusted metal. As the only freshwater on the other side of the island, it is unsurprising that both ventures failed.
Snorkelling off Post Office Bay, we saw sea turtles, schools of yellow-tailed surgeon fish, spotted eagle ray and a white-tipped reef shark.
Walking across Isla Floreana, we spotted several dozen adult flamingos scattered across the lake and nursery group of baby flamingos, protected by a few adults. Young flamingos are the same size as the adults, with their light grey feathers denoting their youth.
Punta Cormorant is a fine sand beach where we spotted around 15 sea turtles and stingrays off the beach. The female sea turtles were waiting in the water to come onshore to lay their eggs. There was evidence of sea turtle nests above the high-tide mark.
Snorkelling close to Devil’s Crown, we saw white-tipped reef sharks, sea turtles and a sea horse camouflaged by the seaweed on the seafloor.
Sailing to Puerta Ayora (Isla Santa Cruz ) our boat was chased by a pod of dolphins and the cloud cover resulted in a most spectacular sunset.
This was definitely a Christmas Day to remember, one where presents came in the form of amazing wildlife where Santa’s reindeer were replaced by sea lions and marine iguanas.
#buckletlist; #Galapagos; #travel; #nature; #landscape; #adventure; #intrepidtravel
Travel date: 25 December 2018