The Luckiest Day

Up at 6 A.M. in order to prepare for a brief walk on Floreana Island with our wonderful naturalist who is also one of the 2 Nat Geo-trained photographers on board. He gave a wonderful lecture last night to us camera fanatics that was so helpful and even included a bit of a hands-on for our individual cameras. I have not had time to look at my photos from the walk, but there were three flamingos in a beautiful lake a bit in from the seaside. We also saw lovely flowers including one from the lantana family. Back at the shore, there were turtles too numerous to count. They were swimming and we were not, but it was very thrilling. We saw fresh tracks heading a bit away from the beach where the turtles had come during the night to lay their eggs. Turtles and whales are creatures that render me speechless with their magnificence. Back for a well-earned breakfast and then off with the "drifters" group of snorkelers for a ride off shore where we got into the water from the zodiaks (or pangas as our crew call them.) We might have been awkward in the boats but we rocked once in the water. With the sun shining we had the best look at all of the wonderful colors of the various fish. I saw a lobster (big), Jackie saw a shark, we all saw many species of fish, and enjoyed watching our underwater photographer doing flips and summersaults with the sea lions. Really! We have had very interesting companions for our meals including one of the naturalists who was born here and now lives in Florida, commuting to work. Two cousins sat with us this morning, one a retired Episcopal priest and the other an anthropologist. Of course we had to tell the ladies about our daughter, Caroline. After lunch we boarded the zodiaks to land at the "Post Office" on Floreana. Starting in the whaling days, visitors left letters in a wooden barrel and when others came to the island, they would take the letters with them to mail on the mainland. Today, we all left postcards of our own and looked through the mail in the barrel, hoping to find addresses near enough to our homes to hand deliver. A Floreana tradition that we will carry out by delivering a card to Irvine. There followed a lengthy ride in the zodiaks looking for and finding turtles, rays, birds and fish. A great day. The luckiest day!