Galápagos day 4 - Floreana

There's not a great deal of wildlife to see on Floreana except for the flamingos. These are the American variety (Phoenicopterus ruber), bringing our total of flamingo species for the year to four.  The lack of wildlife may be partly because an American whaler's helmsman set it on fire for a prank in 1820. ​

One interesting feature is Post Office Bay, where 19th century whalers kept a wooden barrel for letters to be left for ships returning home to deliver. This tradition has been resurrected: we were encouraged to buy postcards from the boat, and we all rummaged through the barrel to see what we could take home. I saw a few cards that were left for friends who would be visiting later in the year, one with an expiry date to say it could be thrown away if it wasn't picked up by October 2019.

Floreana does have spectacular snorkelling. The Devil's Crown, off the north side, is an underwater volcanic cone covered in coral, and has giant turtles, white-tipped reef sharks, spiny lobsters, sea urchins, and puffer fish. Or, at least, I am informed that it does: I could only see the larger types like the turtles and sharks. 

We practiced two kinds of snorkelling: from the beach, and from the dinghy, when you're not allowed on the beach or when the shoreline is too rocky for safety. One or two of the crew would snorkel along with us, towing a lifebuoy for us to follow, while Rafael would cruise alongside in the dinghy making sure everybody was safe, and shouting advice, like "follow the buoy". Actually, that was the only thing he said. The other crew were quite helpful explaining the currents and providing useful tips ("don't follow the shark" was the most memorable), as long as you could stick close enough to them to hear what they said. I realised this slightly too late, after hanging back from the group, taking a wide line on one corner, and getting slowly carried backwards out to sea despite swimming as hard as I could against the current. Rafael picked me up after he'd shouted at me for long enough to be confident that I wasn't doing it just to annoy him, and dropped me off again with the rest of the group. If  anybody from Darwin is reading this, could I suggest attaching a flag or something to the top of the lifebuoy, so that it's easier to see from a distance when there's a swell of more than a couple of inches?