Mr. Bichler: "Grand" Adventure Continues (Foreana Island) Monday, Nov. 21-Day 3

This morning I looked out the port hole when I got up and was greeted with this beautiful sunrise.

Last night we traveled again and we awoke to the vista of a new island, Floreana. If I remember correctly it is uninhabited except for the wildlife, marine life and birds that call the island home.

0600 Wake up call for the pre-breakfast outing
0630 Wet landing at Punta Cormorant for a one mile RT fast pace walk
0800 Breakfast is served
1000 Glass bottom Boat for those who want to snorkel later
1040 Deep water snorkel, Drifters depart first followed by Bay snorkelers
1230-1320 Lunch is served in dining room
1330 Young Explorers meet in the lounge for making post cards
1400 Meet Scott Henderson who will talk about the Tomas de Berlanga School funded by
Lindblad/National Geographic.
1415 Kayakers will disembark followed by a stop at the beach for visiting Post Office
1845 Cocktail hour in lounge. Recap and briefing for tomorrow's activities
1930 Barbecue dinner served at the pool deck. Followed by a documentary about the Mysteries
of Floreana: The Galapagos Affair

Our walk was again one of the highlights of the day. Luke is really good about getting up now that he knows what to expect. I usually go upstairs and get juice and some melon to hold him over until we return for breakfast. He has now made it a point to be first in line to disembark which is made easier since we are only a few doors away for the the zodiac disembarkation ramp.

Coming in for our landing at Punta Cormorant

One of the small populations of flamingos that frequent Floreana

The hike to the far side of the island was an easy hike filled with a multitude of bird songs including finches and mockingbirds

a rarity in the Galapogos, a sand beach which was also used by green sea turtles as a nesting site

A Brown Pelican

Our naturalist, Enrique let Luke hold the remnants of a turtle shell

Luke's photo of a sea lion vertebra

Luke's dead bird picture

Back at the beach waiting for our zodiac, Luke found some living specimens to photograph

After breakfast we took our first of two glass bottom boat rides. Lindblad includes this boat as an option for those guests that may not be able to snorkel. Emma was our naturalist on this trip and she is very knowledgeable about the marine life. I was surprised at what we were able to see..

I didn't take too many photos as they really didn't come out with any clarity but we were able to see and identify several species of fish and even saw a ray.

This is the Swallow-tailed Gull, the only nocturnal gull in the world. At night when we were on deck we could see them following the ship and fishing in the wake of our boat.

After our glass bottom boat excursion, we had 15 minutes after boarding the Endeavor to get our wet suits on and make our way back to the Disembarkation room for our deep water snorkel. We decided to do the "drift" which entailed drifting with the current around a portion of Floreana Island. I was always worried about Luke but soon realized that he was going to be fine and he always had the option to get out whenever he was too cold or tired to go any farther. We had our hand signals down but did not need them on this snorkel other than the OK sign that we had to give when our spotter called out to us. The water seemed warmer today, I think it was 63 degrees as opposed to the 62 degrees of yesterday.

Our first kayaking foray was a lot of fun and Luke was really excited. We had to board our kayaks from the zodiac which I was a little anxious about but we did fine and although I didn't get any good photographs of the many sea turtles we saw, it was a great experience. We kayaked two more times on this trip. Luke insisted we put ourselves on the wait-list as we were supposed to give others a chance to kayak. (The Endeavor only carried 9 kayaks) Each time someone cancelled which allowed us the opportunity to kayak on 3 separate occasions.

Towing our kayaks to the bay where we would kayak

Luke was on "look out" duty

The sea turtles were swimming along with us and would pop their heads up but it was really difficult to photograph and paddle

Our next stop after we boarded the zodiac was a visit to the Post Office. The Post Office on Floreana Island originated in the late 1700's by British whalers that stopped at this island because there was a spring where they could replenish their water supply and collect tortoises as a food supply. The post office, which was actually a barrel, was used to place letters in the hopes that sailors on their way back to Great Britain would pick up the letters and hand deliver them. Whalers were often at sea for 4-5 years each voyage. It was based on the honor system and the tradition is still carried on today. We placed post cards of our own in the barrel and the naturalist read off the addresses in the barrel and if one was close to where we lived we took it and were charged with the responsibility of hand delivering the letter. I took one from Cincinnati and Luke took 2 from Milton, De.

Tonight dinner was served on the Pool Deck and it was a barbecue dinner. Everything was delicious and although many of the foods had an Ecuadorian flare we never had any problems finding something to fill us up after our very active days. A look at the dug out canoe filled with desserts says it all!