The day (14 March) starts with breakfast at 7.30am. Again a spectacular spread from Jefferson, fruit, Spanish omelette, toast, cheese and salami and great coffee. Leonie is not well today, perhaps from too much sun as she is quite burnt.
The boat takes us over to the island, Post Office Bay where there is a pirates post office. This is set up so you can leave postcards to be hand delivered. While there you check to see if any postcards have an address that is close to where you live that you can take with you and may be able to deliver. A bit of fun. Given the few Australians that were in there I doubt I will ever see my letter again! The issue was what address to give seeing as I am homeless...:)! We also walk to a lava tube. The following explanation of a lava tube is thanks to wikipedia."Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the rock has cooled and left a long, cave-like channel.where the hot lava has stopped above ground and cooled first. Underground has collapsed and access has been created so you can enter and see the lava formation below the ground. It is dark and nothing lives within."
Then I walked along the beach which is brown sand and at some points I sink up to my ankles into it. It feels nice, again pristine and untouched. There are tracks on the beach where the sea turtles overnight have been up to lay their eggs then return to the sea. A lone pelican feeds along the beach but is wary of me. Three small black penguins swim across the bay, playing as they go. After my walk I snorkel alone as Leonie returned to the boat unwell. The water is clear but there are not so many fish here and they are smaller but still colourful. A large parrot fish seems to run the area...! I see a ray buried in the sand. The water feels good but I am conscious of what the sun has done to Leonie so stay aware of how long I am in the water.
We return to the boat for lunch. Leonie is still sleeping and not ready to eat. Diego has some fruit sent to her cabin. In the afternoon we go to Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island. We land on a brown sand beach. We see the lava lizards, much prettier markings here as they adapt to the landscape of each island. We are in luck and we see three pink flamingos in the “brackish water lagoon”. Then we walk on to the white sand beach on the other side of the island and see many tracks from sea turtles who have laid eggs over night. We see eagle rays playing along the shore line and many turtles swimming out in the bay getting ready to come ashore perhaps and lay their eggs. I walk the beach, enjoying the white sand beneath my feet and watch the crabs and marvel at how they don’t get washed off the rocks by the waves. We return and the boat brings us our snorkel gear. Diego and I and the capitan's son snorkel along the cliff face edge of the island and then desperate for some exercise, swim back to the boat. Not bad for a 50 year old!
That night we have dinner with all the crew who are dressed in their finest. A little uncomfortable over stilted conversations in two languages, but they are all very nice. Suddenly the lights go out and unexpectedly a birthday cake arrives! They sing happy birthday in English and in Spanish...It was very sweet! I had a caiparinha which was excellent but then I got given a cuba libre (white rum and coke) which did me no good at all and had a bad night with stomach cramps! The sun sets on another great day in the Galapagos.
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