A small little hop over our new favorite pals, the sea lion, landed us on our water taxi which lead us to our shuttle boat we had to take us to Floreana Island. 2 hours of watching the birds playing out on the ocean sea we slowed to arrive to our new home for the next few days.
We were staying at Community Guesthouses on the island, not exactly sure what we were in for we drove quickly into the main town and started to drop people off one by one. A few odd exchanges as we were wondering what on earth we would get as they were houses alright but seemed like we would be staying in peoples homes. We were the last to be dropped off along with Mick and Vicki, we guessed because we were the oldest of the group and we had the little slice of heaven as we were assigned into what we called a little treehouse. The stairs were mighty steep but our place was lovely. Comfy beds, our own private bathroom and views of the ocean and the highlands.
We decided to start our exploration off by heading down to the black sand beach nearby and getting our ocean feels on. Oh my goodness that water is ice cold! Once you’re in though it isn’t so bad. We explored the beach and found the whimbrels and plovers and what appeared to be turleshells on the beach (later we found out that this is a type of shellfish). We ended up staying on the beach for sunset then dashed back to our place for a quick shower and to change for dinner. We were going to a different place for each meal while on the island and it will be prepared by one of the local families. Surprise, surprise. I had chicken and rice! I will say we are greeted with some awesome soup and it seems we are always treated to my favorite, popcorn, with the soup as the idea is that you place the popcorn in the soup as you would with Beer Cheese Soup (American/Midwest cuisine) but I prefer to eat it on its own. After dinner we grabbed a few drinks and sat around the fire to chat but we retired early to get a jump on some things back in our room (night shots and sleep for me, Cecilia to try to attempt a call with her guy back at home).
We had an early rise on Tuesday as we had to gear up and head out as we would leave straightaway after breakfast for our AM adventure which was our first official dip into the ocean to go snorkeling to see what kind of marine life we could find.
We hiked about 30 minutes to our end destination and scrambled over lava rocks to end at our little secluded snorkeling spot. Again the cold shock of water hits you but then you adjust to the surroundings, the water was quite murky but quickly we were on the marine turtles, one, two, three, just floating along with the current, back and forth. Stopping to munch on some algae along the way. I was following this marine turtle, thinking of the Joey from Friends moment of “there’s this sea turtle that if you blow bubbles in its face it chases you, I would go alone but I don’t know what happens when it catches you’ when all of a sudden this one turtle turned and faced me directly, we locked eyes then he kind of nodded turned and went on his way.
I was just swimming away when oop there is this sea lion right there next to me. Now before we went off into the water Alex had warned us that we weren’t to go onto the little inlet island across the way as there is this territorial sea lion on there that would either want an amorous moment with any and all who enter or would go into dual mode. So when this sea lion was upon me in the water I figured I would push back and head further out to sea.
Little did I know this sea lion was just a pup and just wanted all of the attention and play time. Oh and attention and playtime did he get. He swarm all around us flipping and turning, blowing bubbles along the way. He would dive down and grab a shell or a fish skeleton throw it up above him in the water and then go and chase it and try to catch it. He couldn’t get enough of us as he didn’t want us to go and kept wanting to play. All you could hear in the water was the giggles and excitement from all of us with this interchange. I decided to swim away after a little while as I wanted to go find some more sea turtles when all of a sudden the little guy was back with me and CHOMP! He quickly nabbed and let go of my GoPro, just wanting to see what it was I guess. So I laughed as I now have a lovely video of a sea lion eating my camera. So a little additional playtime with the sea lion the cold was taking over and I was shivering in the ocean so I decided it was time to head out. I guess I didn’t realize how cold I was as once I got out of the water I grabbed my camera to get some video of the crabs, iguanas and that territorial sea lion from across the way and I was shaking so bad I doubt any of that footage was usable.
We grabbed a quick lunch and went back off to go on the afternoon adventure which was to go up into the highlands. Up and away we went to our pitstop where our hike would begin we quickly climbed over a fence and was in the tortoise sanctuary and saw the tortoises of Floreana. Further up the hill we stopped to learn about the early inhabitants of Floreana, including an Irish Pirate (come on you can’t beat an Irish Pirate) and a quote unquote crazy woman. Well the Pat, the Irish Pirate, was marooned on the island and created a labyrinth out of the nearby rocks and the initial family who lived on the island carved a few faces into the large rocks reminding me of the giant heads of Easter Island. While out exploring we took a little time to take a peak at the Galapagos Spiders that were weaving about. Didn’t I say as we were heading into the new year that I was hoping for less spiders on my travels. Well I guess I can’t count this too much since I elected to go check them out.
Returning down the hill we did a little touring of the main town, caught up on a few things back at our place and then decided to pick up some rum and coke and have some self-made cocktails by the beach to watch the sunset. I decided to try an in camera timelapse movie (not my typical way of doing a timelapse since I can’t control the settings as much) but I set this up so I could stay in the moment and set it and forget it. I joined in with the group to just enjoy the company and the show.
The second and I do mean the second the sun dipped behind the horizon the mosquitoes came out in full force and quickly we became dinner. Thankfully a few of us were prepared with some bug spray to try to reduce the feeding frenzy. Tonight for our dinner was a special treat as we had a change in the normal fare of fish/chicken and rice. It was such a nice little treat and again the ahi was wonderful!
The next morning was our last moments on Floreana and after a nice little breakfast we went down to the doc and stopped at the local Post Office. This was setup as a system years and years ago as Floreana became a stop for whaling ships. They would be a little homesick and wanted to get letters to their loved ones so they would leave letters in a barrel and the next ship that stopped by who was going in the direction of the letters would pick up the mail and deliver it. This tradition continues today, you leave an unstamped letter in the barrel and look at the letters that are in the barrel and take any that are going to be along your travels and when you get home it is expected that you hand-deliver the letter to the ones you picked up. So the group went through the barrel and looked for any that were addressed to anyplace nearby to our homes.
Before we jumped on our boat we had the last interaction with the wildlife as we had fighting iguanas then we had our first glimpses of the Galapagos penguins who were swimming about. I was so bummed as I had thought I had been taking video of them popping in and out of the water to discover that I had the setting set wrong.
I had always liked have 2 cameras one for video and one for photos, not that it is needed as you can use one for both but I don’t like missing shots due to toggling between the functions and this reminded me why I like to have 2 on the ready, because the settings are similar but was off so I missed the opportunity. That’s okay though, I have the mental photos and the memories. As the Gershwins would say, they can’t take that away from me….