Floreana

Alternative Names: Charles or Santa María IslandTotal Land Area: 173 km²Highlights: Reef fish, rays, flamingoes, turtles, white tipped reef sharks, Historical site.

As reflected in its many names, Floreana has had a colorful history: Pirates, whalers, convicts, and a small band of somewhat peculiar colonists—a Baroness among them—who chose a Robinson Crusoe existence that ended in mystery and death. Today roughly fifty Ecuadorians inhabit the island. In 1793 British whalers set up a barrel as the island’s Post Office, to send letters home on passing ships. The tradition continues to this day – simply by dropping a post card into the barrel without a stamp. The catch is you must take a post card from the barrel and see that it gets to the right place. That is how the system began and continues to this day. Some claim it works better than the post office.

Punta Cormorant offers two highly contrasting beaches; the strand where the yacht anchors is composed of volcanic olivine crystals, giving it a greenish tint that glitters in the sun. From here a trail crosses the neck of the isthmus—which rises to form a cinder cone—to a beach of very fine white sand, formed by the erosion of coral skeletons. Between the two beaches is a salt lagoon frequented by flamingoes, pintails, stilts and other wading birds. Seen 250 meters north from the point is an old submerged volcanic cone that has been worn down by waves.

Devil’s Crown is home to a myriad of marine species including a variety of corals, pencil sea urchin, wrasses, angelfish, amberjacks and many other creatures, making for some of the best snorkeling in the Galapagos. The eroded crater walls form a popular roosting site for seabirds including boobies and pelicans.