Day 10 (Feb 23, Our Wedding Anniversary!): Floreana Island
The 5th day of our cruise was our 2nd Anniversary of our Civil Wedding. It turned out to be one of the best days of our visit to the Galapagos. We took the dingy to Floreana and landed on this unusual green sand beach. In most angles it just looked brownish but in the morning light at the right angle, one can see a green tinge to the sand caused by olivine in the sand. It was amazing, it seemed like every beach we went to was a different color!
We took a morning hike and saw this pool full of colorful flamingos. I had seen flamingos by the millions in Kenya but these really were brightly colored due to the nutrient rich water that there were feeding from.
The water was perfectly still which made for great photos. On the way back I cut my foot on one of the lava rock. It was a minor cut but since our next stop was to snorkel in an area famous for sharks I was concerned!
The next stop was snorkeling at Devil's crown. We were told this is the best snorkeling chance for the trip since this location is well known for sharks, rays and lots of fish. The cut on my foot had healed but I still was worried whether when I hit the water, whether a little bit of blood would attract the sharks. Gino said not to worry but I wasn't sure if he knew what he was talking about! I decided to give snorkeling a shot since this was supposed to be the best place. I figured, there may not be any sharks around anyways. Devil's crown is named after the ominous looking rock formation shown below.
The currents at Devil's crown were strong so Gowri and my mother stayed on the boat. I dropped into the water and immediately saw around 10 sharks swiftly moving through what looked like highways of fish. It was amazing and scary at the same time! Below is the Galapagos White-tipped Shark. He moved effortlessly through the water at high speed. I used to wonder what could be fast enough to catch a sea lion. Now I knew! Gino turned out to be correct about the sharks completely ignoring us, there was so much prey that they ignored the super slow clumsy humans.
The density of fish was hard to believe. I'd seen these kind of fish swarms on television but didn't realized I'd be swimming in one. Silverfish were especially abundant.
Surgeon fish also were swimming around in enormous schools.
Next enormous Spotted Eagle Rays came by. They were about 5 feet across.
The colorful Queen Angle Fish also made an appearance.
Although the Galapagos Island does not have a coral reef, the volcanic rocks are covered with vegetation. I took this panoramic shot composition of Devil's crown that captures the amazing scene that I saw!
We next went to Post Office bay. In the old days sailors would leave letters here for loved ones and sailors returning home would take the letter home with them to mail them when they returned. The tradition continues. Tourists are told to leave a postcard here and to pick one up. When one returns home, we were told to mail the postcard we picked up so it reaches its final destination.
Here were are at this famous site. We left a postcard here for Gowri's parents in India. Amazingly it was quickly delivered to them meaning someone from India had visited, taken the postcard back to India and mailed it. The system worked!
Next, we took a Dingy ride around the channel islands and saw this colony of Blue-footed Boobies. We even saw them diving for fish.
Apparently seeing 5 Galapagos penguins together is a rare sight.
That evening a Galapagos shark came next to the boat. I was happy that Gowri and my mother were able to see sharks too. This one really had a pinkish color to him.
We ended up having a very nice 2nd Anniversary at the Galapagos!