Floreana – a Fascinating & Friendly Gem

Floreana is a small island with only 150 residents but it is a real gem and was the most friendly and welcoming of all the islands. A very different feeling from the bigger touristy islands. As you will discover later in this blog. We should have stayed much longer but we had negotiated several appointment dates in Santa Cruz; the refuelling barge, and a refrigeration engineer and a departure clearance with other yachts from Isabela.

A Little History

Floreana is named in honour of the first president of Ecuador but was known by the English as Charles Island. Whalers and other early visitors to the Galapagos visited regularly as was one of the few islands with a fresh water source. Whalers also kept a wooden barrel in Post Office Bay so that letters could be left there and picked up by passing ships heading home to Europe or United States. A replica of the barrel remains and it is still possible to post a letter (without a stamp) and visitors sift through the letters and still deliver to various parts of the world.

Amongst other disasters the island was set on fire in 1820 by a crewman off a whaling ship. The fire reportedly burned almost all the vegetation and no doubt killed much of the wildlife. In 1835 Darwin visited on the Beagle but by then most of the landscape had been altered by the fire.

Early Settlers

Floreana is famous in its history with three mysterious disappearances in the 1930s. There are several history books about the island but they all have a different versions of events. All stories involve a German baroness and her two lovers and who came to the island in the 1930’s to establish an upmarket hotel for rich tourists. A little ahead of her time all that eventuated was a tin roofed shack. They upset the other locals by taking the water supply and she and her lovers mysteriously disappeared. Ritter, an earlier settler, was an obvious suspect for the disappearances as he was regarded as bit weird but ultimately he disappeared as well and shortly after his partner departed the island.

More information on the area they lived in is under the Tour section Larva Gullies and Pirates Cave – Asilo de la Paz

Arrival and the landscape

Floreana is one of the oldest islands in the Galapagos and is the southernmost island. There are over 50 scoria cones onshore and 6 tuff cones offshore making the he landscape looks like the Auckland region in New Zealand. The oldest flows are on the northern end of the island, while the youngest (26,000 years) are on the southern end. Cerro Pajas is the tallest (640m) inactive volcano on the island, and is the origin of the largest lava flow (272,000 yrs).

The rugged coastline is mostly larva interspersed with a few sand beaches.

Puerto Velazco Ibarra

The main port is Perto Velazco Ibarra which is also the site of the only town.

Unexpected Dinner Invitation

We arrived late in the day and immediately got an invitation to a spit-roasted pig at the local bar and a mother’s day party at the school. As it was getting dark we quickly changed clothes, grabbed some drinks, made a salad, and called the water taxi with little knowledge of where we were headed. After a quick look at google maps while on the yacht we knew that after landing we had to just go right to get to the bar. Not easy in the dark with no streetlights. We missed the local track and went slightly further inland, nthen we found a local to give us directions and found the Black Beach House and bar. https://www.booking.com/hotel/ec/black-beach-house.es.html

The invitation had originated from the yacht Emma whose owners were Italian and they had 5 on board. They had been anchored next to us in Santa Cruz. They had obtained the piglet while on a tour of the island and when it arrived they decided they had too much food so should invite others. . The bar was happy for them to use the facilities as long as we purchased a few drinks. The boys drank beer and I had one of their Mojitos with local mint and local limes, the best I have had in months. We had a beautiful dinner of roast pork with Geordie helping to cook and carve the meat.

After the dinner we needed to get back to the yacht because the water taxi man had told us that he was going to the party that night and would not be available after 9pm. We had his number but were wondering how to get hold of him.

Mothers Day Party

As we walked past the Mothers Day party – we saw our barman (and future guide) – Rony who spoke excellent English and asked him how to find the taxi man. He pointed him out in the line of men getting their dinner and we arranged 930. So we sat on the men’s side of the party and watched for half an hour.

The community has about one dinner per month. This one was Mother’s Day so the fathers cooked and the mothers sat at the tables in the centre of the area. On Father’s Day, the mothers cook and the men are seated in the centre. Every person on the island was there for the party. It was great to see. Noticeably there were few teenagers present as most are all away at school or university, and those in their 20s-30s who had mostly gone to other islands for work.

Visitors

The next morning we awoke to find more friends onboard, one on the front and two on the back boards. A Larva Heron had decided that the code 0 sheets were a good place to stay, Two seals had also climbed on board one on each side but both were very wary and immediately jumped off when approached.

After breakfast and swimming, we headed into town for a local tour. To great us on the pier were the local Pelicans.

Marine Iguanas

Also right on the landing area around the pier are several marine iguanas. These turn bright red during the mating season then slowly lose their colour until they are black during the breeding season. At the time we were there the red was still apparent but fading. These were the largest marine iguanas we had seen and completely ignored us. We had only seen the red colouring here – in San Cristobal they all seemed uniformly black.

Floreana Tour

Present Day

Our guide Rony was a great guide and a great source of general information about the island as it presently functions. https://www.facebook.com/p/Floreana-Island_Gala%CC%81pagos-100064159900047/?locale=es_LA The top of the island is 400 m. and there are only about 150 people with 2 cars and two buses to get around. Everyone else uses motor bikes. The cars are shared by the community and to use them you need to book them in advance. There is no daily ferry so the locals travel on the cruise boats that come down nearly daily from Santa Cruz and San Cristobal. A supply ship calls twice a month with supplies and fuel from Ecuador.

There are six restaurants and seven homestay/ hotels all run by families plus are two stores, one doctor, one dentist and one assistant. One fisherman supplies all the restaurants and families. They grow almost all the food they need on the island. There are several farms and two cooperatives one pig farm and another producing eggs. The cooperatives are trying to supply the local cruise ships as a way of expanding the economy. 10% of the power is solar and the rest is diesel. There is a small desalinator plant and one source of natural water on the island.

No one on the island caught Covid but when they opened up again there was a few that came in with Covid.

Giant Land Tortoises

Thousands of tortoises were taken by whalers on ships as food from the Galapagos. Apparently tortoise can live for months without food or water, so they were taken on board ships and stacked on top of each other in the holds as a “fresh” food supply. This “harvest” of tortoise coupled with the fire in 1820 led to them being extinct on Floreana.

Our guide Rony took us up to the highlands in one of the utes to where tortoise have been reintroduced. The original giant tortoises of Floreana are extinct but from phylogenic DNA analysis, nine descendants of Floreana tortoises have been identified in the captive population of the Fausto Llerena breeding center in Santa Cruz. These animals have come from Wolf island and it is thought that whalers must have released some of the Floreana tortoise there.

This has allowed the possibility of re-establishing the species through selective breeding based on these hybrid animals. The hybrid animals are genetically 80% Floreana and the other 20% is from tortoises of other islands. Currently, 19 have been introduced and are now 12 years old. Tortoises can be reintroduced after 6 years old when they are large enough that the rats will no longer attack them. They are in the current enclosure until later this year when they will be set free to roam around the island. They are the only tortoise breeding place that feeds tortoises.

As part of this program to reintroduce native animals back to the island there is and extensive rat trapping and feral cat elimination program on the island. Rat bait stations are everywhere and the hope is that many of the cats will die from eating “poisoned ” rats. We imagine efforts to get rid of the cats will need to get a little more direct.

Larva Gullies and Pirates Cave – Asilo de la Paz

As the only island with a permanent water supply from a spring, the island was a likely place for settlement. The spring is located in the highlands and was where the first permanent settlers lived. It still flows today and is a significant part of the island water supply.The earliest whalers and pirates visiting the islands sourced water from this spring.

A permanent population did not arrive on the island until the late 1920’s. In 1929 Friedrich Ritter and Dore Staruch arrived from Germany and letters home encouraged others to follow

The Wittmer family arrived in 1932 from Germany with one son and another was born in the cave in which they first lived, the first person known to have been born in the Galapagos. Descendants still live on Floreana and the other islands and the Wittmer name is associated with various enterprises on the islands.

Later in 1932 Baroness von Wagner Bosquet arrived with her 2 lovers and upset visions of utopia.

Initially they lived in caves and gullies nearby the spring. The rock is quite soft and you can still see the remnants of the early dwellings. Later dwellings were built nearby as the settlement grew.

The farm remains today but we did not get to visit it, just look down from above. The area is very lush and grows all sorts of fruit and vegetables.

Birds

All the photos below were taken around the water source for the farm and island. The little pale yellow warblers loved the mud below the spring. The photos of the finches and dark yellow warler were on the tracks close by.

The Farm

We visited a local cooperative farm growing a range of crops including oranges, pineapples, cassava, bananas and plantain. Our guide on the farm was Max Friere, our agent for the island and the former community leader, a position now held by his wife. The first thing he did when we arrived was offer us some of his oranges to drink. They were perfect.

As an attempt to expand the island economy two cooperative ventures have been established with objective of supplying food to visitors on the many local cruise ships operating on the Galapagos. Historically all the food for these operations has been imported from Ecuador.

This farm has established a piggery with a boar and a number of sows raising piglets and initoal results have been encouraging. This island differs from the others with its small population and an apparent willingness to work together.

We departed the farm with a generous gift of food including oranges, bananas and cassava

Restaurant

Our tour of the island included lunch at a restaurant which unsurprisingly was run by Max’s wife and her daughter. Restaurants only seem to open if they have bookings and tend to share their opening times amongst each other so only one operates at a time. The construction of the restaurant was fascinating with all sorts of timber used, some polished and carved and some plain. The also run a hotel both are called Lecocarpus named after the native Floreana Daisy.

A three course meal ensued with including cassava chips and a delicious desert of cheese cake and tiramisu. Far more andm far better than we were expecting.

The whole island is very tidy with no rubbish anywhere. Just over the road form the restaurant you can see the recycling bins.

Loberia Beach

The next part of the tour was off to Loberia beach for a swim and a snorkel. As all tours require a guide on the island, this part of the journey was delegated to Max’s grandfather. A short bus ride through the village and a very slow walk later we arrived at a cute beach for a swim.

The water temperature was brisk so swims were short and after slowly walking back with granddad who had gone to sleep in the shade. We finally arrived at the jetty and main street. Here we posted our past cards in the replica post barrell and will await to see if they get to their destination in New Zealand. We had missed taking a photo so this photo is care of Jan Viajera.

Time to return to the yacht and another lovely sunset.

Departure from Floreana Down the Coast

The Galapagos Officials only permit you to go to four islands in the yacht and only to the four designated anchorages. Large cruise boats that anchor in other areas all have to have a national park guide on board. We did consider enquiring about a yacht guide but in the end there was so much to do that we did not investigate that option.

Anyway on departure from Floreana we decided to hug the coast as far as we could go and see what it was like. The morning had no wind so we motored slowly on our way. IT was so peaceful in the missty cloudy and calm weather. We did not see any other baots until just before we had to head out to sea. We travelled past all types of volcanic formations and came across schools of fish, dolphins, and more inshore seabirds. It became a challenge on the boat to find a blue footed Booby as we had not seen one yet and wouldn’t really get close to one until we got to Isla Isabela. Finally we did see a couple in the distance and the identification was confirmed by photograph.

Dolphins

This pod of about 20 dolphins, including mothers and babies, spent about 15 minutes fishing around the boat They were quite close to shore and seemed happily cruising and fishing. Two of the dolphins most inshore were engaged in some tail slapping, though the others seemed to be ignoring them. The water was very calm and it was delightful just to move along slowly and peacefully with the pod.

Birds

One of the reasons to cruise close to the close was to look at the shore birds and we were rewarded by seeing both blue footed boobies and the Great Blue Heron, along with Nazcar boobies, brown peicans and

Volcanic Coast

The coast had some fascinating geological formations from the lava , but also it was interesting that the vegetation grew straight to spray line, and all the bird rookeries could be seen marked with guano. There appeared to be no large rookeries but lots of small ones in every sheltered and stable(hard rock) crack and crevice.

As we got further up the coast I got a message on WhatsApp asking if we were going to Santa Cruz? Obviously someone had seen us in shore and asked the question. At that stage we thought we better head out to see in the direction we were supposed to be heading.

Back to Santa Cruz.