Enchanted Isles

---

Day 2 - We arrived at the island of Floreana. This island is one of the oldest islands in Galapagos, and is about 5 hours west of Santa Cruz Island.

Floreana has quite a history of buccaneers, whalers, convicts, and colonists.

In 1793, British Whalers set up a Post Office Barrel to send letters to and from England. Today, tourists drop off and pick up letters or post cards without stamps, to be carried to their destinations. The postcards we saw were from all over the world. One post card was rather sad, a young man was saying his "final goodbye" to his family, the front of the card had a picture of 3 women - the picture looked to be taken of these women in the 1950's or 1960's.

On this island is the remains of a Norwegian Fishing Village a commercial fishing operation established in 1926 and abandoned a couple of years later. The group of Norwegians arrived with dreams of becoming rich by starting a fishing and canning operation. Each of these Norwegians brought $900, however life was tough on Galapagos, therefore they abandoned their dreams.

In the 1930's Floreana was the setting for intrigue and mystery. A German dentist and his mistress, a young family (the Wittmer family who still live on the island) and a self-styled baroness with three men came to settle in the island. Shortly after the baroness and her lovers arrived chaos began. They terrorized the other inhabitants while planning to build a luxury hotel.

Eventually the baroness, her two lovers and the dentist all turned up missing or dead. There has been much investigation searching for what really happened on Floreana, but there have never been any hard answers. John Treherne wrote of these people in "The Galapagos Affair".

Floreana has 2 contrasting beaches (Punta Cormorant & Flour Beach). Punta Cormorant has a green sandy beach, it was great for walking in barefeet. On our way to Flour Beach, we stopped at a lagoon where Pink Flamingoes, ducks, and other birds had made their home. Flour Beach had very fine, but white sandy particles. It was equally as nice to walk barefooted. At Flour Beach, we saw some Sea Turtles and Sting Rays.

We snorkled at Devils Crown. We managed to see a Sea Lion swimming, unfortunately the water was a bit murky to see more of the colorful fish. The current was quite strong, plus with it being overcast and windy, I was very glad that I wore a 5MM wetsuit while snorkeling.

Later that evening, we would sail for the island of Espanola.

---

Photos

Small Ground Finch
There are 13 species of "Darwin's" finches. The beak of the finch is what determines the specie.

Brown Pelican
During our sailings the Pelicans and Frigatebirds would hitch a ride.

Post Office
This is the only place on Galapagos where graffiti is acceptable.

Young Sea Lion
Sea Lions were not afraid of people. They were as curious about us as we are of them.