Galápagos - Floreana Island

By location the Galápagos Islands should be tropical, as they sit right on the equator. However due to a unique confluence of currents, they are sub tropical with a unique volcanic landscape and two seasons of ‘hot and wet’ and ‘cool and dry’.(The opposite to the Great Barrier Reef which does not lie on the equator and yet is tropical due to the warm currents). We are visiting in the cool and dry season, when the cold Humboldt current is active, coming north from Peru - resulting in the very cold sea water we experienced yesterday when snorkelling. The animals are also unique - where else can you get penguins surviving in the same place as tropical fish. All the creatures living on the islands have to survive the harsh conditions and adapt to them - like the flightless cormorant who realised there was no food available on land for them, so flying from island to island in search of food was a waste of energy. They did not need wings when their food source was in the sea, and so in time their wings grew smaller, their bodies got bigger and stronger for diving and they adapted to being fishermen for their food.

The sailing last night was not too bad at all, a rocking and rolling motion that was gentle enough to get a good nights sleep. This morning we got the zodiac to Post Office Bay on Floreana Island. There is a barrel post box here where you can post a post card in the hope that other ‘sailors’ who live near to you will pick it up and take it home with them to deliver. We posted our post card and collected one from someone who lives in the very next village to us, that we will hand deliver when we get home.

The boys all snorkelled at Post Office Bay off the beach and have some amazing GoPro footage of a seal lion and green turtle swimming with them, the sea lion showing off and competing for their attention! Amazing !

The people on the boat are all very nice, not often you are on a trip like this and everyone you meet is ‘your kind of people’. I presume it’s because this is an expedition trip rather than just a holiday cruise so it attracts like minded people. I would estimate that 95% of the people on board are from the USA, only 2 other couples are from the UK. It is much easier to access this area from the USA and it is nearly on the same time zone for them, whereas it is a long and complicated journey from the UK with a 7 hour time difference.

After lunch there was another deep water snorkelling session to swim with the sea lions. The boys all went and had an amazing experience. I have to accept my limits and know that the water is just too cold for me! In the hot season the water is obviously warmer but the marine life is attracted to the rich plankton that the cold current brings so there is far more sea life to see in the cooler season.

In the afternoon we visited Punta Cormorant on Floreana to do a hike and find flamingoes. Disappointingly there were only about 10 flamingoes on the other side of the lagoon, too far away to see properly. As we were leaving the island one flamingo flew over to the beach right next to where we were boarding the zodiac, which is where I took this photo. I liked the sunset colours reflected on the sand in this scene.

I am still having much difficulty uploading my blip everyday. I manage by air dropping the image from my laptop my phone and posting from there, it is impossible to upload from my laptop. Funnily enough I can post images much more easily to Instagram and Facebook. Thank you for continuing to look at my journal when I cannot comment - sorry it’s so long and detailed but this is for my records of this trip.