Galapagos Adventure

Floreana - Post Office Bay (ps)

By early morning, our ship had traveled to Floreana, a quiet island of gently rolling terrain dotted with many volcanic cones (extinct of course) springing up out of scrubby vegetation. Humans have come to Floreana off and on for over two hundred years, engendering a number of outlandish tales of their exploits bordering on legend: convicts, failed colonists, misanthropes who possibly murdered each other - none of it seemed real the day some of us made a pre-breakfast dry landing to visit the famous Post Office Barrel. This is a living tradition begun in the whaling days (c. 1793) as a drop off for mail that passing sailors would bring back to civilization, the process at times taking years.

Gilda & Gracialla handing out the mail (sz)

Today travelers leave their mail in a box in an area decorated with whimsical sculptures created out of messages left from all over the globe. Mail delivery works on an honor system in which each tourist who takes a piece of mail addressed to someone in his/ her home port is supposed to hand deliver the letter or postcard to the addressee. We placed several postcards in the pile, assuming we might hear about their arrival years from now. Turns out two of our friends from the Rochester area received theirs promptly but NOT hand delivered! US stamps had been affixed to put them through the regular mail.

Sandy depositing the mail (ps)

Floreana beach (sz)

Later that day, kayaking was offered. We were taken out in two rounds, each participant having the chance to sign up for one slot. All of the equipment was provided by the ship. We found sea kayaking to be easy and not different from freshwater kayaking at home perhaps only because the waters we paddled in were not at all rough. We were helped into and out of the kayaks directly from the ship's gangplank. It was wonderful to be able to be close to nature this way, instead of only walking in a group or traveling on a bus.