Floreana Island is famous for a black sand beach and a dark human history. A couple of hippies – the Wittmer’s – indirectly managed to entice a self-proclaimed Baroness and her two lovers to find their way there and so ensued a bizarre chain of events which now have a few sides of the story and no-one knows the real truth. Only one group still remains and since the baroness went mysteriously missing, it’s the Wittmer’s. Talk about twilight zone. You can google it for the full stories 😉
We enjoyed the natural side of the island with a snorkeling session that showed us fish, a manta ray and turtles before a walk through what’s left of the community. It was the first settlement in the Galapagos and is now the smallest. Lunch included soup with popcorn croutons – a common feature in this part of the world I’ve found, and actually very tasty, do yourself a flavour and give popcorn croutons a try!
We finished our visit with a beer, chocolate and walk on the black sand beach where the contrast of black sand and aqua water is amazing and a lot of the mysteries of the Wittmer’s and the Baroness happened. These days though, nature is in full swing again.
We continued on to Isla Isabella, the largest island, shaped like a seahorse with a big tail and is the second youngest island. As we putted through to the dock in the late afternoon, several sea lions poked their heads up from their comfortable sleeping positions inside boats anchored off shore. They really are cool creatures.
