Galapagos Day 2: Floreana

Overnight the Beagle sailed four hours so that we woke up moored off Floreana. First up was a ride up a rough road to Asilo de la Paz, a site on the hill that was inhabited in the 1920s and 1930s by some Germans who, judging by the stories, were all bonkers. There was a dentist who pulled out all his teeth to avoid the need for future treatment and a nymphomaniac baroness and her entourage.  They ended up murdering each other but hey, we are here for the animals not mad people so I will leave the rest of that story. Nearby we saw some more giant tortoises who were very active and in the throes of mating.

You can tell by the smile what's on his mind...

Later we saw pink flamingos and herons feeding at a beautiful lagoon while nearby turtles swam just offshore awaiting the opportunity that darkness brings to slide onto the beach to lay their eggs out of sight of the marauding scavenger frigate birds. In the same shallow waters a male ray fish was struggling manfully to entice a female into breeding. It looked like she had the fish equivalent of a headache but after much thrashing in the sea we think he had his way with her.


Back on the boat we watched the sun go down into the deep blue water from a clear sky. Away from the lights of town and with just a sliver of a new crescent moon, real darkness fell and the stars emerged one by one.

Here on the equator our familiar friend, the constellation Orion, lies on his side instead of the upright hunting pose that we see in the northern hemisphere. The Incas saw not a hunter but a butterfly in the seven main bright stars. We saw the same Milky Way that the Incas saw too - to them a reflection of their sacred river that flows around Machu Picchu - with the southern cross emblazoned on it like a medal. The Incas had their astronomical knowledge to identify the stars and we have Rob's i-pad application that tells you exactly what you are seeing in the sky above. Accordingly we were able to locate Saturn, one of our nearest neighbours, hovering in the constellation of Virgo.