During another delicious buffet breakfast, the ship repositioned to a small, offshore volcanic cone named Champion Islet. We again boarded the Zodiacs (sometimes called "pangas" by Ecuadoreans), this time for a guided ride along the rocky shores and steep underwater cliffs.
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| Corona del Diablo (Devil's Crown), also offshore of Floreana |
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| Kevin onboard the Zodiac |
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| This is a prickly pear cactus. On many islands they develop a very tree-like trunk. |
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| Candelabra Cactus |
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| Sea lions and Sally Lightfoot crabs |
We saw swallow-tailed gulls, brown pelicans, a playful sea lion and a feeding frenzy of brown noddies.
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| Brown Pelican |
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| Swallow-tailed Gull |
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| Adult & immature swallow-tailed gulls |
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| C-mon in, the water's fine! |
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| Brown Noddy Feeding Frenzy! |
And the grand prize of this outing--the rare and endangered Floreana mockingbird. Champion Islet and the nearby Gardner Islet are the only islands where a small population of these birds still exists--it was driven to extinction on the main island of Floreana by cats, rats, and other introduced predators. What a thrill to see one in the wild! (These are all shots of the same bird, the only one we saw. We watched it for quite a while.)
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The molting sea lion doesn't seemed disturbed by the Floreana mockingbird at right.
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After we returned to the ship, some people went deep-water bay and drift snorkeling. Others of us went in the glass bottom boat to see the marine life around Champion Islet. I did not try to take photos of the fish, sea stars, and coral that we saw during our outing, but here is a link to what the boat looks like.
NG Endeavour Glass Bottom boat The awning not only provides shade but makes it possible to see without the sky's reflection. We boarded it from the Zodiac.
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| Leaving the islet for our next stop... |
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