Floreana

Floreana is an inhabited island at the south of the Galápagos archipelago.
We visited two of the Floreana visitor sites: Punta Cormorant and Post Office Bay. Punta Cormorant was named after a US military vessel, not after the birds, which aren't found on the island.

Tje highlights of the Punta Cormorant landing include olivine crystals on the beach and a lagoon which has White-cheeked Pintail Ducks, Greater Flamingos and waders/shorebirds.

A short walk across the neck of an isthmus leads to a beach where we saw Whimbrel, Ruddy Turnstone (just like at home) and Wandering Tattler, as well as Stingrays.

The Greater Flamingos in the Galápagos islands are much deeper pink than those found in, for example, Kenya.
I believe this is due to their food.
They are sometimes assigned endemic specific status, Phoenicopterus (ruber) glyphorhynchus

The trouble with photos like the above is that people might think I took it at Flamingoland (wherever that is!)

Floreana has its own Lava Lizard Microlophus grayi which is confined to the island and four nearby islets. It is the smallest of the seven endemic Galapagos Lava Lizards.

This is a Painted Locust, presumably a Greater Painted Locust, Schistocerca melanocera. One morning on the boat, two landed on my flowery swimsuit, which was drying on the top deck.

Post Office Bay on Floreana is world-famous for its post barrel.
In 1793, British navigators put a large wooden barrel here in the hope that home-going vessels would take their mail home. The boards are from many boats over the years. The barrel has been replaced several times, and the tradition continues that visitors can leave a postcard and take one for their home area.

I actually took two, one for Scotland and one for England, which had been placed in the barrel the previous day: part of a huge bundle - all 'posted' recently, so there must be a 'fast turnover'. Presumably they'll have been received by now, Post Office allowing; I 'posted' one to myself, just to see how long it would take.

Update: The card I posted in the barrel on 11th July arrived 27th July, having been posted from California. Of the cards I posted outside the Post Office in Puerto Ayora on 12th July 2004, only one has arrived as of Feb., 2005! The moral is probably 'post them in Quito', though a local said it's OK if you hand them in to the Post Office, which wasn't open when we were there. Or, as I did in 2005, take them home to post: the cost of a postcard stamp in 2007 was $2.15!!!