Floreana – La Lobería
We visited La Lobería of Floreana THREE times during a two-night visit… so probably more times than most!?!
The Lobería just outside Puerto Velasco Ibarra – like other loberías in the Galapagos – has been named this way because it is home to a colony of lobos marinos – the Spanish word for sea lions 😉 It is the sea lions and apparently good snorkelling that draws most visitors here… I say apparently because we didn’t actually make it in the water! We hadn’t brought snorkelling gear with us, and you didn’t appear to be able to hire wetsuits on Floreana – just masks and fins… from a place which didn’t have obvious opening hours! We decided hanging out by the water was just as good as getting in the water!
We really enjoyed strolling from town to La Lobería… it wasn’t a long stroll, but it was an extremely scenic one – taking in beaches, lava formations, and unusual vegetation – yes, it had the usual cactuses, and regular trees BUT parts of the trail were also covered in a red carpet of vegetation… which looked really nice 🙂
The clear blue waters sparkled as you walked past, sea lions bobbed up and down in the water, or else were lazing on the beaches… and then there were the unmissable marine iguanas resting on the black lava rocks – marine iguanas on Floreana are known as Christmas iguanas due to their cool red and green colour scheme – no black camouflage for them here!
La Lobería also felt pretty devoid of visitors – there were a few tourists that appeared to go for a snorkel… but they were mainly visiting Floreana on a day tour, and unlike us, didn’t have time to linger in this pretty magical place.
Our favourite vantage point at La Lobería was a huge lava hill at the far end of the trail… from there you could not only see out to sea, but you could direct your gaze inland to the Floreana Highlands as well, or look straight down at the water in the hopes of catching glimpses of a turtle or even a penguin… Yep, we spotted TWO penguins – okay so maybe it was the same one on two separate occasions – but it was VERY exciting nonetheless!!!
We took lots of pictures on our visits to La Lobería… it would have been rude not to!!!
