Day Five - Floreana Island
Traveling several hours west late at night had brought us to Floreana island, a place with some twisted history and intrigue. Our first stop was Baroness Point, named after the self-imposed Baroness Eloisa von Wagner Bosquet, an Austrian woman equipped with a whip, revolver and black boots, who kept three lovers/servants and began making life difficult for earlier settlers with taxes and fees and so forth. Though the exact details are not known, she and her freinds met their demise in a series of strange occurances. Baroness Lookout Point provides a nice overview of the rocky shore of Floreana and the bay.
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(Click to Enlarge)We boarded the panga and circled the island a little to what is know as Post Office Bay, followed closely the whole way by a group of curious sea lions keeping an eye on us. Since the 18th century sailors kept a wooden barrel that served as post office so that mail could be picked up and delivered to their destinatio by ships on their way home. Cards and letters are still placed in the barrel without any postage. Visitors sift through the letters and cards in order to deliver them by hand, keeping the tradition alive. I left a postcard and sifted through those from the US. There were many, even some from Dearborn, MI, but they had been left just days before. I thought I'd let them stay on the island a while longer.
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(Click to Enlarge)We spent the rest of the morning snorkeling in the calm bay waters before lunch and then a visit to Punta Cormorant, which featured some flamingoes on one side and a beach full of stingrays swimming on the other, along with a friendly pelican taking it all in. Yazmany explained that the flamingo population had been dense in the past, with an ideal lagoon for feeding. However a tsunami in recent years blew some fish into the lagoon which competed for the food supply, forcing the flamingoes to other areas. There were still a couple to see in the distance. The stingrays were all over the beach in the very shallow water and we had to be careful where we stepped. They would often emerge out of the sandy water suddenly as we waded around watching them.
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(Click to Enlarge)Capping off a full day of activities, we visited a site off the northern coast of Floreana for some snorkeling. Known as the Devil's Crown, it is a jagged set of rocks jetting out of the water that form a circle, resembling a crown. One of the best snorkeling spots in the islands, we saw more sharks, rays, many fish, turtles and more. Pangas typically drop passengers off on the windy, deep side, and then you can swim around counter-clockwise to the shallower, calmer side. It's very beautiful once inside the crown.
As we ate dinner, the captain took us north to Santa Cruz. We arrived in time for a shore visit, where Yazmany, Emily and I took full advantage, visiting a place called the Bongo Bar for a few beers and conversation.
