Galapagos Islands, Floreana Island

Galapagos, Floreana Island

Galapagos, Floreana Island Floreana is officially known as Santa Maria, this is the sixth-largest of the islands at 173 sq km. There are many visitor sites on the Floreana Island.

Post Office Bay used to have a barrel where whalers left mail. Any captain of a boat that was heading to where the mail was addressed would deliver it. The site continues to be used, but obviously, the barrel has been changed many times. About 300m behind the barrel is a lava cave that can be descended with the aid of a short piece of rope.

Punta Cormorant, here there is a greenish beach (green because it contains crystals of the mineral olivine) where sea lions play and the swimming and snorkeling are good.

A 400m trail leads across an isthmus to a white sand beach where turtles sometimes lay their eggs. The beach is also good for swimming, but beware of stingrays - shuffle your feet when entering the water.

Between the two beaches is a Flamingo lagoon, several dozen flamingos are normally seen. This is also a good place to see other wading birds, such as the black-necked stilt, oystercatchers, willets and whimbrels. White-cheeked pintail ducks are often seen in the lagoon, and Galapagos hawks wheel overhead.

Galapagos Red-billed Tropicbird Another Floreana visitor site is Devil's Crown, this ragged semicircle of rocks is one of the most outstanding marine sites in the Galapagos. This is one dive where you might want to fight your way through the passing currents to nestle on the rubbled bottom at 65' and just hang out and wait to see what swims along. Groups of hammerheads and spotted eagle rays cruise back and forth across the currents and do come quite close to divers who are stationary for a while. Also here you can view redbilled tropicbirds, pelicans, herons and lava gulls nesting on the rocks

The Puerto Velasco Ibarra leads to an area with endemic medium tree finches (these only live here). Nearby caves where the site where early settlers lived, now called Asilo de la Paz. continue...