Today we started earlier than usual; a pre-breakfast walk took us to Cormorant Point at Floreana Island. We landed on a green sand beach made out of small pieces of olivine crystals mixed with volcanic ash. We walked through a native forest mainly composed by Palo Santo trees. As we got closer to the brackish water lagoon we found a great group of greater flamingos and some shore birds. The flamingos of the islands have already been classified as a Galapagos sub-species. It was wonderful to see that the water of the lagoon has been replenished with the rain and it’s now healthy with the crustaceans that give flamingos their beautiful pink color. As we got to the other side of the island, we found a white coralline sandy beach that is one of the important nesting grounds for the Pacific green sea turtles in Galapagos. Today we could see the tracks from the hatchlings that probably came out of the nests last night.
Later in the morning after breakfast, a Zodiac ride and snorkeling outings were the activities planned. In the Zodiac ride around Champion Islet, we spotted several different species of sea birds and the elusive Charles mockingbird, whose population is restricted to this area including the close by Gardner Islet. Snorkeling along Champion gave some of our guests the incredible opportunity to find a whale shark sun basking on the surface of the water. After that, the Galapagos sea lions with their acrobatics maneuvers and quick turns amazed everyone underwater.
Kayaking, Zodiac riding and a short visit to the Post Office Bay were the activities for the afternoon. As we got close to the coast with our Zodiacs, we could see different species of herons, egrets and a couple of Galapagos penguins resting on the rocks.
As we headed back to the ship at sunset we could see how the sky was painted with bright colors. What a magical place these islands are!
