Tour Guide, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
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Overnight we sailed from Isabela down towards the southern island of Floreana, where we visited several different sites throughout the day. We made the most of a day in this beautiful island by starting nice and early, with a pre-breakfast optional wake-up call and outing to the famous Post Office Bay.
The original post office barrel was placed here around 1793, probably by the English whaler James Colnett, who was the first person to mention the barrel and place it on a map. Our guests left letters and postcards in the barrel, and took from it letters and postcards addressed to locations near their home; thus following a tradition that started in the late 18th century.
This bay was also the site of a colonization effort by a group of Norwegians in 1926. Their main purpose was to establish a fishing industry, which failed after just two years due to the lack of organization and internal problems. The pieces of metal and the trails are the only signs that remain of this early attempt at a settlement.
Our visit to the barrel was followed by a short Zodiac cruise around islets that make up an important sea lion colony, where we saw many Galápagos sea lions, including a beautiful baby sea lion looking at us with undisguised curiosity, frigate birds, cattle egrets, massive opuntia cactus trees and extensive mangroves.
On returning to the ship for a hearty breakfast, we repositioned to a small offshore islet named Champion, an old eroded cinder cone, which offered spectacular snorkelling!
Lots of yellow-tailed surgeon fish, parrot fish, sharks, cardinal fish and playful sea lions. Zodiac cruises taken later on allowed us sightings of graceful red-billed tropic birds and the remarkable opportunity to see the Floreana mockingbird, now extinct on the main island.
After lunch we disembarked to visit yet another site on the island: Punta Cormorant.
The landing beach contains a large quantity of olivine crystals, which gives it a greenish coloration. These crystals have their origin in volcanic materials found in the nearby tuff cones. The crystal is formed when the magma is still below the earth. Their contents are magnesium, silica and iron. The variety of plants found here is greater than that found in other islands of the archipelago, including many endemic to Punta Cormorant and nearby areas. Scalesia villosa and Lecocarpus pinnatifidus are very good examples.
The sandy beach we found at the other end of our trail, however, is composed of pulverized coral of very soft texture that abounds with sting rays in the shallows, as well as several turtles.