Today, as with every other day, we maintained our morning routine of breakfast at 7:00. Following breakfast, we loaded onto the Zodiacs for a split sea safari/kayaking adventure. This was our first excursion on the ocean kayaks. Given the limited quantity of kayaks we broke into two groups so that one half could be with our guide in the zodiac exploring the bay while the rest kayaked nearby. This outing ended in a success unlike our last attempt in Belize when Jay lost his phone to the Caribbean Sea.

Next we made our way to land to visit Post Office Bay which is named as such because in the past a barrel would be left at this spot for whaling vessels to send messages back home (passing ships that were headed back to England would grab the messages on their way through the Galapagos). Today, a modern day barrel has been added to this site and visitors are encouraged to leave messages and take letters from other visitors back home and either mail or hand deliver them. We left a few messages in the barrel – we are excited to see when they arrive at their final destination – hopefully more Washingtonians arrive to Post Office Bay in the near future and are willing to courier our messages. We also grabbed four messages bound for Washington addresses to make sure they get to their destination. An interesting fact we learned is that Ecuador no longer has a public postal service, as the agency was cut during the pandemic. The only way to ship letters or parcels is through private courier services which are expensive. We also snorkeled from this location and in addition to the many colorful fish we saw a small octopus in the shallow coral. 

In the afternoon following lunch we navigated to Champion Islet for another snorkeling adventure. In this location we saw countless fish of all shapes, sizes and colors. We had a truly amazing experience with several sea lions who were swimming near the shore. As we went by the sea lions took great interest in us and swam very closely around us, seemingly wanting to play. We learned that sea lions make noises under water similar to the sounds they make while on shore. We also had a wonderful time swimming with reef sharks, a huge puffer fish and a majestic sea turtle. Next, we took a walk on Floreana Island where we arrived to a sea turtle nesting ground. Unfortunately for the baby turtles they appeared during the day which led to a feeding frenzy for the local frigate birds. This was a site to behold as we witnessed how nature can sometimes be harsh. On this same walk we stopped by a beautiful pond which serves as a common nesting ground for flamingos.

While getting ready for dinner we noticed several decent size sharks swimming around the boat. After dinner more sharks had gathered next to the boat (we counted at least 12), along with a sea lion and a host of flying fish. We witnessed our second feeding frenzy of the day as we watched flying fish eat smaller fish while looking to avoid the hungry sharks and sea lion – a unique and remarkable experience. The sharks and sea lion won the matchup and appear to be eating well.  

Today’s snorkeling and feeding frenzy experiences lent themselves well to video, so please be sure to check these out in our gallery. As much as we want to deny it, tomorrow is our last full day in the Galapagos – we will soak up every minute of it!