Travels to the Galápagos

Travels to the Galápagos

Monday, February 11, 2002

Floreana

It has become a challenge to keep this journal current, so much is going on.

Early this morning we took a Zodiac to Post Office Barrel in Post Office Bay, where we mailed postcards to various points. Comparatively speaking, there wasn't that much to see. The barrel and the accompanying paraphernalia were pretty much like the pictures one sees, but were smaller than I expected. The number of outgoing postcards in the barrel was also smaller than expected, indicating a fairly high throughput.

Note: We sent postcards to various addresses from Post Office Bay on February 11. A postcard my daughter sent to a friend in Germany from Post Office Bay was received March 9, 2002. Other postcards trickled in to their various recipients the weeks of March 11 and 18, and others the week of April 11. My wife also mailed some postcards by regular mail from Puerto Ayora on February 13 for comparison. The latter arrived after a couple of weeks, sooner than we had been led to expect.

I walked a short way inland on the steep beach trail, and saw a couple of rusting tanks and some concrete piers from an abandoned settlement. Wildlife here included a pelican, a finch, and a number of ghost crabs - red crabs smaller than Sally Lightfoots (Lightfeet?) that quickly dart into prominent holes in the sand as one approaches.

Floreana is medium-aged by Galápagos standards, having several parasitic cones that are partly eroded. The highest, Saddle Mountain, was hiked by Darwin during his visit (in an approach from Black Beach, on the west side of the island). Although we won't be visiting Black Beach, Darwin and Fitz Roy did come ashore at Post Office Bay, which made it a special stop. As things turned out, this would be our only land stop at a point that Darwin himself had visited. We would see others from the ship, but would not go ashore. (At Puerto Egas on Santiago we went ashore on a beach very close to a black lava field that Darwin crossed, but not on the lava field itself.)

A few hints of new, green growth from the start of the rainy season were visible.

After visiting Post Office Barrel, our Zodiac took us on a water cruise of the nearby Loboria (Lobo = wolf, for Spanish sea wolf, or sea lion in English). Among the animals we spotted were sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs, whimbrel, cattle egret, blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, spotted eagle rays, ruddy turnstone, great blue heron, lava heron and sanderling. (I'm not sure about the sanderling.) Mangroves grew in some places. The Floreana cactus that grew just a short way inland and upward from the shore is unique to this area. These cacti have large, barrel trunks, and were the size of squat trees. The size of the trunks (at least their diameters, not their height) amazing

The Loboria is a 300-year-old lava flow, comprising tumbled masses of black, volcanic rocks. There are many inlets and shallow water, where sea lion mothers can leave their pups during fishing trips, in relative safety from shark attack.

After some barking, an older male sea lion chased off an upstart younger one. Other sea lions were very playful, swimming right by our Zodiac.

A medium-sized school of fish swam past the Zodiac. We saw only a few marine iguanas here, all basking on the rocks.

Unfortunately, Floreana is also populated by several exotic species as well - including horses, goats, cattle, rats, and pigs.

My wife (in a different boat) saw a sea turtle. We did not, but we did see tracks in the sand where one had come on shore to lay eggs the previous night.

One frigate attacked a second frigate in the air, causing the latter to drop a fish (which had previously been stolen from another bird, unseen by us). The first frigate dove down and snatched the fish before it hit the water. The new victor was in the process of swallowing the fish when a third showed up to try to steal it anew. A rather lengthy aerial chase ensued, but the fish had been swallowed for the last time - the new pursuer finally gave up.

After the Loboria, the Polaris sailed a short distance to our first snorkel site of the day, Champion Island, just off Floreana. I had finally solved the problems with my snorkel mask - no leaks, no fogging. Snorkeling then became far more enjoyable. The water temperature was about 80°F, very comfortable by human standards. There were high densities of many types of fish. Among other creatures in the water, we saw a small jellyfish (one stung my wife's ear), a white-tipped reef shark, some small tuna, colorful medium-sized parrotfish, hogfish, pufferfish, small corals, Moorish idols, sea stars with bright, red tubercles, King angelfish, sea urchins, yellow-tailed surgeonfish, sea lions, and other, unidentified, colorful fish by the hundreds.

The sea lions stole the show this morning. One, two, or three at a time swam up underwater - very close, curious, unafraid. Carlos warned us not to get too close to the resident bull sea lion, who was barking to define his territory. The bull could be aggressive.

Champion is pocked with bays, caves, and grottoes eroded from the lava. Inside one grotto, perhaps 20 feet wide, 40 feet front-to-back, and 20 feet deep, with about two to three feet of air between the water surface and the ceiling at the moment, four to six sea lions were playing - diving, circling, exploring the clumsy, snorkeling intruders. The grotto was darker, and at first I was afraid to enter it, fearing I might be trapped by current in a spot where there was no air. Then I reasoned, rightly or wrongly, that Lindblad would not let novices snorkel near a dangerous cave, at least not without a warning (which we had never heard), so I went in. The sea lions' antics were mesmerizing. After a while, I coaxed my son to enter the grotto too. It was as if the sea lions were putting on a show for our sole benefit. I guess that they are just naturally playful, and have not learned to fear Homo sapiens.

Later that morning we went on a bird-watching cruise of Champion Island. Even more eroded bays and grottoes were to be seen on the west and north sides of the island than we had seen while we snorkeled on the south side.

The Floreana Cactus, some of which were huge, bushy things, and others of which appeared more like trees with thick trunks, were covered with yellow and orange blooms, well above the reach of salt spray, but not that far from the water line. A dramatic sight.

Sea lion colonies were found in most of the small, shallow bays. They were their usual, playful selves. Birds spotted included blue-footed boobies, brown noddies, ruddy turnstones, Audubon's Shearwater, swallow-tailed gulls, frigates, small ground finches, and at least three Floreana mockingbirds - two of whom were in a squabble of some sort. The Floreana mockingbird is extinct on Floreana itself, but it survives on Champion and (I think) one other small islet due to the absence of exotic predators. There cannot be very many of them left in such a small habitat. A couple of Galápagos doves were on the slopes of Champion.

While we went to Post Office Barrel this morning, some of the crew sailed "around the corner" (to the west) to the small settlement of Black Beach. Only 70 or so people live on Floreana today, nearly self-sufficient. The Polaris purchased vegetables from them, and a suckling pig (the latter, alas, was domestic, not feral).

During a magnificent lunch featuring a variety of Ecuadorean specialities, two sea turtles mated in Post Office Bay. (Or at least they engaged in some sort of non-antagonistic interaction - I'm no expert on these things).

In the late afternoon we took another snorkel trip, this time at a small islet named Devil's Crown, so-called because it comprises three jagged tips rising out of the water, eroded a former volcano. I felt more comfortable with the snorkel gear by far than on the earlier trips, so this trip was more enjoyable. A strong current flows from southeast to northwest. We drifted with the current, first around the northern side, and then after a short panga ride, through the middle of the old crater. We saw much aquatic life. I won't try to list them all, but here are some: at least five white-tipped reef sharks, parrotfish, King Angelfish, Moorish idols, yellow-tailed surgeonfish, pufferfish, thousands of four-inch (ten-cm) black-and-white striped fish, stone scorpionfish, large schools of small fish, sea lions, and - a real surprise - a Galápagos Penguin. I swam close to get a picture as it perched on a rock ledge.) I later leaned that there is indeed a small colony of the penguins in Floreana. I scraped my leg on the rock getting close, but it should be worth it if the picture comes out - I was within about five feet of the penguin. (Alas, the picture turned out rather blurred, The penguin just stood still, stoic the entire time. Shortly after the penguin, I saw a blue-footed booby plunge-dive into the water about 300 feet (100 meters) away. We saw a red-billed tropicbird fly to a cliff on Devil's Crown, trailing two impossibly long tail feathers behind - it was a ways off; I hope we see some closer. (Note: We did at Genovese, but the birds were partly hidden in a cliff face. During the week we saw many of them flying, tail feathers trailing behind.

Our last expedition of the day was to Punta Cormoran. We landed on a unique olive brown beach. Lima-bean-like mangrove seeds were sprouting in the sand. We passed many Palo Verde and Palo Santo trees on our short hike, acacia, and at least one large black mangrove. Beautiful grasshoppers were numerous. Lucho, our guide, showed us one of the twenty very different Scalesia species in the Galápagos, this one a small, tree-like plant. The Scalesia are the finches of the plant world, having undergone quite an adaptive radiation. They are endemic to the Galápagos, and belong to the Compositidae, which include daisies. It looked nothing like a daisy, that tree, but there it was anyway, growing away like nobody's business. A yellow warbler was nearby in another tree.

The plants here were mostly brown and dead-looking. The rainy season is a little late this year, but a few trees showed some green and flowers already. We saw a pelican, a finch, and a couple of lava lizards on the path to a lagoon.

The lagoon at Punta Cormoran is salty - the salt concentration varies over time, depending on recent rainfall history. It is sometimes saltier than the sea, and is sometimes rather dilute. It is subject to tides, but with a phase lag as compared to tides in the sea. There is an underground connection of some sort to the sea. Greater flamingos and pintail ducks were in the lagoon, feeding on brine shrimp. We moved closer to the flamingos on our return trip, and witnessed their upside-down filter feeding. We also saw two flamingos in flight.

A short hike across the point to a sugar-white beach rewarded us with an amazing sight - probably about one hundred female Pacific green sea turtles were waiting in shallows just offshore, waiting until dark to come ashore and lay eggs. The higher part of the beach was already completely covered with depressions where earlier nests had been dug, with caterpillar tractor-type tracks connecting the nests to the water. When hatched, the baby turtles have no trouble finding the water (as they can in some parts of the world), because there are no artificial lights to confuse them. But they are preyed upon by many predators, including frigate birds.

We got a closer look at adult and juvenile Sally Lightfoot crabs than anywhere else we've been, especially on some black lava rocks in the middle of the beach. As best as I can tell, these crabs stay on the black lava rocks, and avoid the adjacent sand. Many ghost crabs were there also, all scurrying into their sand burrows as footsteps approached, unlike the fearless Sally Lightfoots. A marine snail moved slowly in a tidal pool. Two blue-footed boobies plunge-dived for fish. Other birds included frigates and a great blue heron, but we saw no cormorants at Punta Comoran. A very well-preserved juvenile male sea lion skull lay just below the turtle nests.

This beach was the only place on the entire trip where we saw any significant amount of trash. It really wasn't that much, but it stood out since everything else is pristine. Mostly halves of citrus rinds, but also some net, rope, and plastic. The prevailing currents make the southeast sides of Floreana (and I guess San Cristobal) the spots where flotsam washes up from South America or ships in this part of the Pacific. It was distressing. We carried out the non-organic trash that we spotted.

On the hike back we noticed a couple of finch nests in Palo Santo trees, and numerous seeds and seedlings of the black mangrove on the olivine beach. A pelican had remained perched in a black mangrove the entire time we were at Punta Comoran (about an hour-and-a-half).

Our two kids and the other twelve-year-old boy seem to be making friends, with no further incidents.

Sunset over Post Office Bay from the stern of the ship was beautiful. A deep, red sun sank quickly below the horizon, followed immediately by the "Green Flash" that is sometimes seen at sunset over the ocean. The Green Flash was so brief that I wasn't sure whether I had really seen it, but many others on deck oohed and ahhed, so I guess it was for real. The silhouette of Isabella was visible to the northwest. We sail past Isabella tonight, our second longest single voyage segment of the week.

My wife and I watched bioluminescence off the bow of the ship, on a moonless, star-studded night. After our eyes adapted to the dark, there was a diffuse band of pale green perhaps a meter wide on each side of the ship, punctuated by sparks of bright green. Really very pretty.

The kids saw four dolphins off the bow that night, but they had left before my wife and I arrived.

Map of the Islands (from the Emory Law School website) (Note: Floreana is also called Santa Maria, as shown on this map.)