Floreana
Floreana
We got up at 6, had breakfast at 7 and were on the small boats by 8 ready for a wet landing. There was a young sea lion on the lower deck this morning, just lounging around. We were told this was not all that unusual in this area.
We went to Floreana Island to see Post Office Bay. It’s a barrel where whalers put letters they wanted delivered to their homes. Boat captains knew about the barrel and they would stop and check for letters that they could deliver on their next stops. Now it’s tourists who leave postcards with addresses but no stamps. Each succeeding group of tourists goes through the little plastic bags of postcards and picks out those addressed to people in or near their hometowns and delivers them. We left a postcard but there were none addressed to anyone in Atlanta or anywhere else in Georgia. Some folks in our group did take postcards that they will deliver. We then went back to the boat so the snorklers could suit up. Four of us went back to Post Office Bay and walked the beach for an hour. We discovered a soccer field that is used by boat crews for pick-up games. That was followed by a small boat ride around the bay. We saw several sea turtles, some sea lions, and a penguin. The group hiked up a steep path to an observation deck – nice view but rough climb.
After lunch we took a short nap and did some reading. At 3:30 we did another wet landing at Punta Cormorant. It was very soft sand. We hiked a trail and saw a large lagoon populated by pink flamingoes, including some baby flamingoes. They are gray and only get pink as they mature. The mother birds feed the babies a sort of regurgitated mix of tiny little shrimp that they scoop up from the mud in the lagoon. It takes several months for the babies to develop the characteristic long curved beak that allows the mature birds to dig and strain the sea life they eat. We saw a mother flamingo refusing to feed a squawking adolescent who clearly had a well developed beak for gathering its own food. Every time he waded across the lagoon and got close to her she would fly away and settle in another part of the lagoon. The adolescent couldn’t fly yet so it had to walk to find the mother. As soon as they got close to each other the mother flew off again. We assume it finally decided to go fishing for itself. We hiked a bit further to another observation platform with great views of the bay. We got back to the boat about 5:30 just as daylight was beginning to fade. It was then shower time, a pre-dinner drink, debriefing, and dinner followed by the usual early bedtime. The boat is cruising and rocking.
We will need to get up at 5 or 5:30 to pack since the motion of the boat makes packing impossible. This is the last night on the boat. Tomorrow we get to sleep in a hotel on dry land.
Helen’s Journal
Thursday, October 26, 2006