Floreana Island
This is our third day exploring the Galapagos Archipelago. Today our route took us to Floreana (also known as Santa Maria – the official name of the island – and Charles in English). This is an old stage of a shield volcano and as such it has several parasitic cones. Many of them cover the surface of the island itself and a few are islets and rocks now isolated from Floreana. Some of these cones are extremely important, as genetic banks, for some species that are threatened on the main island, like the Floreana mockingbird.
After breakfast our captain anchored in front of a charming little islet called Champion, where we had our share of snorkeling and glass-bottom boat activities. It was a spectacular outing! 95% of our guests got in the water with the always-playful sea lions.
In the afternoon we landed at Pta. Cormorant where we had a walk through the arid vegetation zone. It was a wonderful hike for botanists as we got to see some endemic genera. These plants have been isolated long enough to become quite different from their ancestors; good examples of that are the Scalesia and Lecocarpus. But this was a great walk also for birders. We spotted two new species of Darwin’s finches, the Galapagos flycatcher, several shore birds and flamingoes.
This is our third day exploring the Galapagos Archipelago. Today our route took us to Floreana (also known as Santa Maria – the official name of the island – and Charles in English). This is an old stage of a shield volcano and as such it has several parasitic cones. Many of them cover the surface of the island itself and a few are islets and rocks now isolated from Floreana. Some of these cones are extremely important, as genetic banks, for some species that are threatened on the main island, like the Floreana mockingbird.
After breakfast our captain anchored in front of a charming little islet called Champion, where we had our share of snorkeling and glass-bottom boat activities. It was a spectacular outing! 95% of our guests got in the water with the always-playful sea lions.
In the afternoon we landed at Pta. Cormorant where we had a walk through the arid vegetation zone. It was a wonderful hike for botanists as we got to see some endemic genera. These plants have been isolated long enough to become quite different from their ancestors; good examples of that are the Scalesia and Lecocarpus. But this was a great walk also for birders. We spotted two new species of Darwin’s finches, the Galapagos flycatcher, several shore birds and flamingoes.
