Today we spent the day visiting Floreana Island. In the morning, we disembarked for an early pre-breakfast visit to Post Office Bay. We had fun learning about the days when whalers came to the Galapagos Islands and established the first post office. This old tradition has continued, and we had the chance to drop off postcards and we took some to deliver. We also had an incredible snorkeling experience in the clear waters of Champion Islet. We observed a number of fish species common to these islands, including the whitetip reef shark. We ended our visit to this island with a natural history walk at Punta Cormorant, where we had the chance to see blue-footed boobies nesting and flamingos feeding in a brackish pond. We ended the day with a delicious dinner on the sky deck onboard National Geographic Islander.
5/14/2024
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National Geographic Islander II
San Cristobal Island
We arrived at the beautiful landing of Punta Pitt very early in the morning. A gang of playful juvenile sea lions were rolling with the waves on the olivine-colored beach, barking loudly to greet us with comical choreography. Once we were ready to start our walk, we were surprised by a red-footed booby who desperately and laboriously cut little branches of saltbush with the apparent purpose of getting nesting material. The effort it made to cut a few little twigs was completely inspiring. Look how he does it! Then, on the summit of an eroded tuff cone, we saw blue-footed boobies nesting. It was too early to start to work so they were sleeping, and in few cases, taking care of their newborn featherless chicks! Later, we returned to the green beach, and we swam with sea lions and colorful tropical fish. In the afternoon we headed to a special bay where one of the most beautiful beaches in the Galapagos exists. We strolled on the white coralline beds and swam in the turquoise water, then finally sailed around an ancient and dying ash cone in the middle of the sea, called Kicker Rock.