Floreana was the first island to be settled, by a pirate turned governor, a German dentist, a self-styled baroness and finally the Wittmer family, whose descendants still run one of the guesthouses. Today it is the least visited of the four inhabited islands: a village of about a hundred people on a black sand beach, one road into a green highland with a freshwater spring and pirate caves, and a coast of flamingo lagoons and turtle beaches. Offshore, Devil’s Crown, the sunken rim of a crater, is often called the best snorkeling site in the archipelago, and Post Office Bay keeps a two hundred year old tradition of hand-delivered mail. Most people see Floreana on a day tour from Santa Cruz; the few who stay get the island to themselves once the boats leave.
