Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - Floreana, Saturday May 11th 2013
An unexpected treat - due to problems with the inter-island flight service, our itinerary changes to include a day on the less-visited island of Floreana (population: 150). Even a frankly nauseating speedboat ride doesn't diminish the appeal of this friendly island, where the Cruz family do everything to make our stay as memorable as possible, from the wooden huts on the beach to a fascinating tour of the island from Claudio (driven by his brother Walter in his wood-panelled open-sided bus) to a delicious barbecue lunch (including veggie soya kebabs!) and an evening meal in the restaurant run by Claudio's sister.
The experiences of one colonist - the formidable Marget Wittner - are detailed in the book Floreana - which is a very subjective account of how a German family settled on the largely unoccupied island in the 1930's. As well as seeing the pirate caves where the Wittmer family originally settled and the rock they carved that fooled archaeologists into thinking there might be an Easter Island era settlement on the island, Claudio told us stories about his family's experiences of growing up on the island and showed us his father's grave, complete with trees planted for each of the 12 Cruz children.
As the sun set we saw sea lions basking on the shore and a beautiful beach where we dipped our toes in the Pacific as crabs jumped over the surrounding rocks; in the morning we rose to see turtles sticking their heads above the waves. A very special place that we were privileged to see - even a sick-bag on the boat ride over could not diminish the charms of this remote and fascinating island.
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