Floreana is best known for its colourful history of buccaneers, whalers, convicts and early colonists. In fact our guide told us the most horrible stories of intrigues, mass murder and strange colonists…Hard to believe, but in fact the stories are true. At least three books were written about this, and I bought and read the one Juan preferred: The Galápagos Affair by John Treherne.
I really loved the Palo Santo trees. They seem to cover the whole island, making it look very arid – but also very beautiful, sculptural and silver shimmering.
The shore line is very jagged, and even here the Palo Santo rules.
The beach is full of shells and not that pleasant to walk on, but in the waters you will find Brown Pelicans swimming and diving, Blue Footed Boobies and also…
…the endemic Galápagos Penguin, a smooth swimmer in the bay. Further inland, along the paths, we surprisingly found more colours – astonishing!
The volcano has been long extinct, and is now eroding, supporting the vegetation with important nutrients.
The Palo Santo would be all green in a couple of weeks…according to Juan, our guide. I loved these silvery trees, but it would be a dream to visit when they are green as well. Mimosa grows here too – just imagine everything here green and yellow!
We had to stop at Post Office Bay, where whaling Captain James Colnett established the wooden post barrel in 1793. In fact the first post office in Ecuador. Here, the outbound ships would drop off letters and returning ships would pick them up and mail them. In fact people still do! Tourist ships let their passengers post letters and cards, and then bring home the mail possible to hand over when in your home country. We brought home one letter to a family on Gotland.
Next post will be the last one from these enigmatic islands: Santiago and Genovesa.
Warden Spirits 