Floreana Island ~ Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Last night we motored four hours through fairly rough seas. I didn’t enjoy the ride, even though I was in bed. I was thankful to be in the lower level cabin close to the middle of the ship.

This morning after a breakfast of sunny side up eggs, ham, cheese, hot rolls, hot chocolate, and mystery juice, we went to Floreana Island. We had each written out a postcard addressed to ourselves. On the island is a mailbox, and we looked through the postcards that other people had left there. I was surprised to find a lot from many foreign countries yet there was none from our area of California. The idea is to take one and deliver it to that person by hand like they did in the olden days.

We continued along the path, stepping up black lava rocks until we reached a cave. We slowly walked down the wooden ladders then walked along the floor of the cave. Soon we sloshed through water which kept getting deeper. Finally I decided to swim to the end of the cave until I could touch the rock wall at the end. Only four of us did that.

Then we climbed back out of the cave. I had decided not to bring my snorkeling gear with me, so I just swam in the cove with five others looking at crabs and blue-footed boobies. The rest of the group snorkeled and found three late sea turtles.

We came back to the ship for lunch. We ate Yellow-finned Tuna in Coconut Sauce, Lettuce and Pineapple Salad, a small relative of the potato, and Red Banana Cake. An hour later we were snorkeling in water where the currents were swift. We came back to the ship sooner than planned. We next went to Cormorant Cove to see flamingos, Blue-footed Boobies and their babies, crabs, and other smaller wildlife. The sand had tiny green crystals throughout, so it will glisten in the bright sun. Unfortunately, it was overcast. Fortunately, I got a picture of a mother Blue-footed Boobie feeding her baby.

For dinner we had pork chops, mashed potatoes, red cabbage with tomatoes and cucumbers, broccoli, and some kind of red fruit frozen dessert. After dinner we all went to our cabins since we have an early morning tomorrow. The ship soon started its four- hour cruise to our next island.

. Galapagos Mailbox

Swimming in the lava cave