Floreana
Trip Start
Oct 04, 2008
1
15
30
Trip End
Jun 05, 2009
Floreana, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Thursday, November 27, 2008
It wasn't a particularly nice day and it's fair to say the boat ride (3.5 hours) was a bit choppy. I was also perching on one side so couldn't avoid the numerous people who didn't have very good sea legs. Anyhow, we eventually made it to Floreana, where we disembarked and headed up into the highlands on a bus. The scenery was a little different to Isabela, but not dissimilar. We then followed a path up to the tortoise sanctuary - there's about 80 tortoises on Floreana - they are far shyer than the Isabela ones, but once they got used to us, one or two were a bit more inquisitive.
We continued walking up through farm land and to a rocky area with fantastic views across the bay. This was the spot where pirates used to hide away ... there's various nooks and crannies where they used to hide stuff and a strange labyrinth of rocks. It was a most peculiar natural phenomenon.
We headed back to the boat and went to the snorkeling spot. It wasnīt the most inviting water - the sky was still grey and the sea was a bit choppy, but a plunged myself into the water (it wasnīt elegant) and swam my way round the edge of - I did see some fairly fantastic things (but itīs a while back so I canīt recall specifically) but I was more concerned about not getting smashed against the rocks with the current. But it has come back to me that just as I was returning to the boat I did see an octopus...which is quite cool.
