Day 14:
Today we awoke at Floreana Island. As usual we ate breakfast and headed to the island. Floreana has a charming place called Post Office Bay where you can follow the tradition of pirates and whalers of the past. There is a barrel where these guys left mail and every ship that passed by would look through the mail to see if they were heading to where the mail was addressed and then take it. The tradition lives on, and you can leave a letter for a loved one in Floreana. Hopefully, someone will deliver it personally fairly quickly. I wrote a few post cards for my friends and families whom I had memorized addresses for. I did not have access to my list of addresses. The whole point is to hand-deliver the mail just like the tradition of pirates in the past.
(NOTE: The postcard I had addressed to Curtis was delivered from Oklahoma via the United States Postal System. I’m a little pissed because the whole purpose is to follow tradition of past and hand deliver the mail for a unique experience and not just pick it up, put a stamp on it, and mail it upon your return to the states. Why someone from Oklahoma picked up a postcard from Houston to mail is beyond me. If your not going to participate correctly, then don’t participate! If I wanted to mail it I would have put a stamp on it in the Galapagos and sent it via the Ecuadorian mail system. None of the other cards have been received yet.)
Anyways, we headed to a wet landing to the Floreana shore that was very difficult because the surf was strong. Afterwards, we walked along the beach to find a path to Post Office Bay. Our guide explained what it was and we stood there and went through the post cards. Mika, the girl from Holland, found several cards within a few miles of where she lived. I found no postcards near Houston, which upset me because I really wanted to participate and hand-deliver some postcards. I managed to find a few in Texas, but none nearby or in a place I knew of. I found another card that wasn’t addressed to anyone, but spoke to me. So I grabbed it. It had a message to whomever was reading it about following your heart. I wanted to keep it so that I would constantly be reminded to do so.
After spending some time sorting through the postcards we continued down the path where we visited a lava tube cave that the pirates used back in the day. Our guide told us this island had a spot where the crew could get off the boat and play soccer, but they littered up (it is the culture in Ecuador)… our guide told us that while we went down he would go clean it up! He warned us to bring our lights in the morning and since it was really dusty I put my large camera away in my pack to protect it. I then headed down the steep stairs into the cave. I am SO excited to be in a REAL pirate cave! How cool is that!?! – You all know I love pirates!
After climbing down these stairs we were led to this steep decline where there was a rope to hold on to. We were slipping and sliding on the loose rocks down the path and hardly able to hold on with the loose rope we were given. We finally made it to another part where we went down another ladder. It was pitch black with only the light emitted from our headlamps and flashlights. Once we reached the bottom and walked a bit a few of us decided to turn off all of the flashlights and see the pitch blackness of the cave. It was extremely dusty and there was all kinds of stuff in the air floating about. I then took a photo of us in the pitch black and caught a few people off-guard. 
The area we were in was quite large and I could just imagine the pirates back in the day hanging out here.
We headed down further until we reached some water. Two of the boys waded really far in the water, where it was quite cold and led to another path, but we opted to hang-out for a few minutes before returning back. A few people didn’t have lights and it was difficult to walk without a light because the path was ridden with rocks, holes, and other whatnots.
We then made the trek back through the cave through the ladders and rope incline and headed out where we met our guide who was sitting there chatting with another guide. (Hey, I thought he was going to meet us on the beach where he was going to pick up the trash from the crew!?!) We then started to head out and I saw this guy start to enter the cave with some really nice cameras (two) and I warned him of all the dust inside and told him not to bring his cameras down there. He then, like me, put his gear up into his backpack before continuing. We then made it back to the beach and walked down to an area where the surf was a bit calmer before proceeding. It was a short trek total. When we arrived to the shore we saw a bunch of older people that were snorkeling near the shore because they can’t handle the current of where we were going. They all had canes and we all cracked jokes about them. Oops.
It was now time to head back to the boat where we would get the best snorkeling of the trip so far, but it was too far to swim so we had to go by boat. We had about 30 minutes to get ready and Stina decided not to go so I again, borrowed her underwater camera.
The boat brought us to Devil’s Crown. It is a semicircle of rocks and one of the best diving and snorkeling sites in the Galapagos. We then all had to jump in the water and go for it. I wasn’t too happy about that and decided to try and slowly get down, but eventually I just had to jump. When I got into the water I immediately saw sea turtles and tons of fish! I was so incredibly happy about seeing sea turtles. They were swimming majestically in the sea and I was privileged to share the ocean with them. I then continued to swim around to see dozens and dozens of schools of fish. It was very difficult to swim, the current was really strong and I was having a hard time, but continued on as the boat followed us around. I then came to an area that was home to sea lions. I was just floating there and they were swimming all around and under me. They got SO close…. Inches away from my face! At first I was really scared, but then it was okay. They were swimming all around me, playing with me, and copying me a little bit. I started to blow bubbles as I went underwater and they would blow them back at me. I would twirl my body and they would do the same. It was so neat to interact with ocean wildlife in that way. Incredible.
I then needed a break because the current was really strong, the water was shallow so I stood up a bit, but then got knocked down by the water. I decided to swim to the boat and hang out there for a bit. It took me a bit to get my fins off as I was holding on to the boat ladder and the current knocked me off and away from the boat. I finally got my fins in the boat and climbed up with a bunch of sea water in my mouth (yuk). After waiting for a few minutes the captain told me to call in the rest of the crew so I did. They slowly made there way over and we were to head to another rock that would be difficult to swim to in the current but was a few seconds by boat. One of the crew was snorkeling with us and offered to find us a good spot. I almost didn’t want to get in the water, but he said he saw sharks… so I jumped right in.
There were several sharks just resting on the ocean floor in this little cave quite far down. I decided to try and dive down to get a photo. Once I was done looking at the sharks, I swam a bit further to find sting rays and manta rays just swimming along. It was quite amazing!
After we finished we all piled back into the boat and headed back to the ship where lunch was waiting for us (along with Stina).
After lunch we made our way to another part of the island where we had another wet landing. We walked to an area that had fresh water and we found a few lonesome flamingos. It wasn’t much to see and they were quite far off in the distance…
We then headed to an opening where we were near the water and we saw one Galapagos Duck. One. Then we headed further down the path, to a look-out that gave us a view of the freshwater lagoon. It wasn’t much to see and we spent quite a while there before heading to the beach. At the beach we saw tons of sea turtles in the water waiting for the females. On the beach there were dozens and dozens of holes where the sea turtles came to lay their eggs. The birds were flying overhead waiting for the baby turtles to hatch and eat them. The sea turtles in the ocean were just chilling or swimming around. Every few minutes they would poke their heads up and then pop back down.
After 25 minutes here, we returned down the path, the same way we arrived to check for more flamingos. This island was my only chance to see penguins and there were none in the vicinity… there was an area where they hung out, but we were not allowed there by park rules. I was pretty bummed. I really want to see a penguin and have been obsessed with them lately.
We headed back to the boat where we took off immediately so that we would cruise during the daytime. I decided to take a nap on-deck. It took FOREVER to arrive back to Puerto Ayora. We waited about an hour before dinner was served. It was a special dinner for our last night and the captain’s birthday so we had a cake as well. I was pretty excited. Dinner was finally served and we ate it up… except me, it wasn’t too tasty. My dinner mates were surprised and ate up my plate for me! It was now time to tip the crew. We were asked to tip about $10 per day, but none of us wanted to do so. I tipped what I thought was fair to the crew and then to our guide… but it was pretty good considering what some other’s were tipping (less) that stayed for 8 days to my 5!
Cake was served and we all ate it up. We had about 30 minutes to get ready before the boat would drop us off in town and we could hang-out there before returning to the boat around 11pm. Everyone was waiting on me because I had to put my mascara on to head to town! I wanted to dress up a bit since we weren’t hanging out on the boat…
We arrived to town and all headed as a group to a bar where they were playing 20 second clips of some 80’s music. I was surprised at everyone who all knew the words to these old American songs! Tetra, Stina, and I ordered Strawberry Daiquiri’s and then decided to share accommodation when we arrived back on the island tomorrow for a few days as Stina was staying an extra night and Tetra was staying until Friday.
The boys went off to play pool and then they took the 80’s music off and put this down-tempo music on that bored all of us to the point we were falling asleep.
Petra, Stina, and I decided to leave the joint and said that if anyone wanted to follow they could, but that we were heading elsewhere. Everyone decided to follow us and we walked around not knowing what to do and settled on a restaurant where we all ordered dessert. We hung out here, damn near falling asleep, in silence waiting until 11pm when we would be picked up. We were all really tired. It was almost lame.
The boat came to pick us up at 11 pm and I immediately went to bed and crashed for the night.
