A panga ride was the first order of business at Floreana Island. We went out to see some sea turtles while they slept in a protected bay. The sea lion pups also use it as a play area as it is too shallow for the sharks.
We then have a wet landing at the post office. Now calling it a post office is not entirely correct. It is a barrel. The concept works as follows: tourists bring their own post cards, complete with address but no stamps. These are kept in a Ziploc bag to protect them from the elements. The next load of tourists come on shore and âpostâ their card and take one or many from the bag and post them from their home countries, or anywhere really.
We snorkel off the same beach that we landed on for the post office. The most exciting sighting were of sea turtles. There were mainly smaller fish around.
Corona del Diablo (Devilâs Crown) is the location of our afternoon snorkelling trip. It is a collapsed caldera a few hundred meters from the island of Floreana. The waters were a little choppy and currents stronger than we have experienced. You know that it is going to be a good dive when you spot a white tip reef shark within the first minute! The fish and life around the rock faces of the caldera were great. Lots of colourful variety and we all would have liked to stay longer! It is also the first time that we saw a yellow puffer fish. We also saw the cutely named chocolate chip starfish- it is yellow with thick, short, black spikes that look like choc chips.
We have a few minutes to change into our walking clothes to visit Punta Cormorant. There is a large brackish lake here that has a few flamingos, we also see some fly catchers and finches. We are visited on the beach by a heron, who is surrounded by people trying to photograph it and it doesnât move at all. As a matter of fact, it looks ready for more photos-definitely a poser. It is still there when we return from the second beach. The second beach is the consistency of flour and white, giving the sea a turquoise blue colour. As we make our way along the beach I spot objects in the waves- 2 spotted eagle rays and a black tipped reef shark! A little further down I spotted several sting rays- some smaller and then a large adult! A lot to discover in a relatively small area.
Our guide also brings the micro plastics that have washed up on the beach to our attention and we pick some up on the return trip. They are really small and no one noticed them until we really looked for it- and then you can see it everywhere!
