During the night, Beluga has travelled from Santa Cruz Island to Floreana Island.
When we woke up we were at Point Cormorant on Floreana.
This was our first wet landing. If you dismount the Panga correctly – you get your feet and maybe up to your knees wet – if wrong —- Thank goodness no one got it wrong.
A quick walk along this beach – we see our first sea lion – boy did it pose for us. These are wild animals but they sure know to show their best side for photos.
Also saw our first Blue footed Boobies – one mum with a young chick and another couple – well not couple yet – because the male was doing his best to get his blue feet beside her blue feet – if you know what I mean. More about this later.
Short walk to the Flamingo lagoon. It was great – we counted about 28 birds around the lagoon – some feeding very close to us. Amazing colours – some were not as pink as the others – this indicating that they were not getting a good diet – its their food that helps with the pink colour. Saw them flying and over the other side of the lagoon – just standing on one foot – funny – they all faced the same direction.
From there, we walked another 10 minutes and came to a beautiful white beach.
This is our first beach that is used by Sea Turtles for laying their eggs. They go up into the sand dunes and bury them. Some times you can see the trail – but most times the tide has washed these away.
This was also a no swim beach because it is a favourite spot for Rays. We did not see any this time – even though the water was so clear
Along the shore in and on the rocks – there was hundreds of very colourful crabs.
We were walking up the beach when a young Marine Iguana decided to check us out. It walked down the beach with us – stopping every now and again to allow us to take its photo. (I have included one of my photos in my gallery.)
Back to the boat for morning tea and time for the snorkelling. I did not do this but most did – they went to a small submerged volcano called The Devil’s crown. We were told the currents can be strong and the water is a bit rough.
Lunch time – what a feast – this was the start of lots of food. After lunch there was always time for a nap. Remember this is close to the equator and the middle of the day is the hottest. Also – it was time for the Boat to move to our next wet landing.
3 o’clock and back to the island – this time to Post Office Bay. For those who have never hear of this place – back in 1793 a wooden barrel was placed on shore back from the water and was used by whalers to drop off their letters and outbound ships would take the letters and see they were delivered back home and would also drop off letters from home. This tradition still happens today. We dropped off some postcards and sorted thru the thousands of cards for cards addressed to our country. I have one card to deliver to St Heliers and maybe one day – we may get some of mine returned to NZ.
Back to the beach for another nice walk. This time a young sea lion came to check us out. He followed us along the beach – stopping every now and again to allow us to take photos. It was so funny and so unexpected that they would be so friendly.
I should mention at this stage – we were told that the wildlife had all the rights and we were the visitors. Even thought they came so close to us – we were not to touch them or do anything that would scare them.
Our panga’s came to take us back to the Beluga – time for a shower and dress ready for Cocktails with the crew. Official welcome with the crew all dressed up in their whites. Looked great.
Dinner at 7.00pm with briefing of tomorrow at 8.00pm. Three Dry landings tomorrow.
Beluga travelled for the next 5 hours to get us to Isabela Island . Quite a rough crossing – more tomorrow.
chau