Today we had 4 stops on the island of Floreana. The first was on Punta Cormorant beach where we walked to a flamingo lagoon and saw 4 flamingos up close. Next we walked to a wonderful white sand beach where we were supposed to see sting rays. I didn’t see any, but a couple people did. Our next stop was to Devil’s crown to snorkel. The fish were much better here and I took a lot of pictures. I even got some pictures of the sea lion swimming underneath me. Fish we saw include: dolphinfish, king angelfish, rainbow wrasse, bump head parrotfish, bicolor parrotfish, razor surgeonfish, galapagos seabream, giant damselfish, and black triggerfish. Stop three was to post office bay which was used by whalers, sealers and private yachts since 1793 to send mail.
Stop four was at black beach, where we got in a truck and drove up the mountain. I was thinking we were going to the “house” of Margaret Wittmer, which we did, but it was the cave she lived in when she first came to the island vs the house she lived in during her later years. Along the route we heard some noise and the guide took us off path to see some mating turtles (although the male was confused as he was humping the female’s head). When the guide started back, he didn’t wait for anyone and just charged forward through all sorts of rocks and brush. I kept up with him so as not to lose the path and would stop to make sure the rest of the group knew the way. Seemed weird that the guide was doing this as the walk was advertised as easy and there were a couple of people that were having a difficult time walking. As we went up to the cave, the guide was again not helpful to those that needed some guidance on which were the easier paths to take.
Back to Galapagos – 2011