We started the morning by touring North Seymour Island, known for its nesting frigate population.

After our frigate bird observations we again donned our wetsuits and snorkeled along the shore of the same island. The water was cool and choppy. Our best sighting today was a spotted eagle ray.

Back onboard we took a hot shower and sat down for lunch. Lunch usually includes a discussion of the mornings snorkel sightings.

After lunch we repositioned to Santa Fe Island for kayaking and a nature walk.

We saw a lot of turtles and sharks while kayaking.

Following the lagoon kayak, we landed on the beach of Santa Fe Island for our nature walk. As we sat on the rocks and put on our walking shoes, a sea lion pup emerged from the rocks. Like all the pups, it showed no fear, only curiosity.

Santa Fe Island is also called Barrington Island. Our guides told us the islands have several names, and one even has seven. Santa Fe is one of the oldest islands, having been formed from an uplift instead of a volcanic eruption. That makes the island flat, instead of conical. We walked through rocky terrain and a cactus forest. Alex said some of these cactus are over 200 years old.

Today we started on Floreana Island. The bay is called Post Office Bay.

From our itinerary package:

In 1793 British whalers set up a barrel as the islands post office, to send letters home on passing ships. The tradition continues to this day, simply by dropping a post card into the barrel without a stamp. The catch is you must take a post card from the barrel and see that it gets to the right place.

I dropped 2 postcards in the barrel; one to Maine and one to Oregon. I picked out 4 postcards to deliver; two to Portland, Oregon, one to Salem, Oregon and one to Seattle.

We had two opportunities to snorkel today and we did them both. Our first swim was in Post Office Bay. We saw many turtles feeding in the rocks. It was the best turtle snorkel yet.

Our second snorkel was around a small island very close to Floreana called Champion Islet. It is billed as “one of the top snorkeling sites the Galápagos offering prime underwater sea lion interactions.” We can vouch for that. We swam with pups and year old sea lions. It was great. These two snorkeling experiences were the best of the trip. We saw turtles, sharks, and had some very close encounters with sea lions.

After two wonderful snorkel experiences we had lunch and repositioned to a different side of the same island of Floreana. We took a panga to the beach. Walking a rocky trail onto yet another beach we came upon a stretch of sand where two smaller sea turtles were struggling. Judging from the tracks, the turtles had come up on the beach and then turned around to go back into the sea. One was close to the water and slowly making progress. The other sea turtle was higher up on the sand and stopped. She looked exhausted. Several of our group picked her up and set her closer to the water. We watched as she made her way back to the safety of the sea.