Galápagos

What can I say about Galápagos? Life was good, that´s for sure. From the moment the plane started to land I knew I was in a cool place – how? Because it was unlike anything I had ever seen before and at the same time it was oddly familiar. The Galápagos are Islands situated north west of Ecuador in the pacific ocean, imagine a kind of desert landscape, some islands covered in black lava rocks, others with red sand, and many with strange cacti and little shrubby things (I mean plants) all over the place.
We land in Baltra and immediately get outside into warm dry breezy air, the sun is strong and I´m ready to smell the sea. As soon as all of us (that is 12 students plus Xavier and his wife and mother) get our luggage, we hop into a bus that takes us to the dock. The first thing I see are sea lions. Huge, hairy and peaceful was my first impression, they lay all over the wooden benches in the only shade and under the dock as well. We boarded a small motor boat, red and rafty looking, it looked like a big blow up toy, and luckily could hold half of us, as its brother came and picked up the rest. Our Yate (yacht) was named San Jose and we eagerly climbed up onto it. We admired the length, its levels – kitchen, crew living quarters downstairs, the dining room and some cabins above, above that more cabins and open deck with bar for relaxation, and my personal favorite, the very top, basically an open area where you could look out and climb up a little platform where the GPS machine was located. Anyways, so we get settled in and immediately head off to a beach on nearby Santa Cruz. We meet our personal guide/naturalist to the Islands, Billy, who tells us all about the ecology and some natural history of the islands as we travel with him. He gives us a talk every evening about the next day’s plan and refers to cool stuff as “super chevere” the ecuadorian equivalent of “totally rad”.
We take a little “caminata” or walk, and one of the first things we almost walk into is a marine iguana. It is just lieing on the rocks in front of us, its black coloration allowing it to blend in with the black of lava basalt. At first I think it will run away as we approach, but it sits there completely spread out, unbothered by our prescence. If it hadnt been pointed out to me, I wouldn’t have noticed until I stepped on it. After everybody takes pictures of it, the other iguanas that we spot and all the sally-lightfoot crabs (huge, red with speckles, scary) we move on and come to a little inland lake. Standing in the middle is a flamingo – the Greater, the same as we have in Namibia. We all oggle some more. Galapagos seems to have a little something for everyone – strange vegetation, marine life and beaches, desert island kind of effect, it is stunning.
Happily we go back to the beach where we landed, pull on snorkel gear and jump right into the ocean. We see some very pretty fish, small ones big ones, colorful parrotfish, large schools of surgeonfish, concentric pufferfish. We only find out the names of many of them later, but I love the view and swimming feels great. We definitely ame in the right season – the water is warm and the current isn’t too strong so there isn’t a huge chance of seasickness. Similarly to Namibia, Ecuador’s coast is affected by an Antarctic-originating cold water current which causes dryness along the coast after which it turns and hits Galapagos with similar effects. The cold current is great for sealife because it causes upwelling of oxygen and nutrient rich water, but it causes the land to be very dry. However, Galapagos is also affected by the El Nino current which brings warmth and wet air around christmas time every 7 years or so (hence its name meaning “the child”). This causes great vegetational growth on the Islands and is good for the bird and animal populations on land – but not too great for the sealife. Can’t please everyone I guess. That night we are served coctails of welcome and introduced to the crew – captain, first and second mates, panga drivers, engineers, cooks. Then we are served the first of some very classy meals including meat, vegetables, noodles, fruit and desert. We get spoiled on board – it’s like a mini-luxurycruise, all meals served by Jefferson (basically our butler), snacks when we come back from the beach, nice two-person cabins with their own bathrooms.
That night we are standing on the deck with Xavier looking out to the dark sea when we notice some very large shapes moving around in the water, illuminated in the boat’s light. We make out a huge marble ray and some other big fish we think are tuna. My friend Cooper and I run down to the edge of the boat where we would normally board the pangas and try to see the fish up close. Everyone is already going to bed this time but we stay and watch the water. Suddenly a huge flipper pops out right underneath us. We jump back in surprise and it vanishes. Soon it returns attached to a sealion. We later find out that they often leave the shore at night to fish and can go for a few days without needing to return to land, the reason that they were able to survive years of overhunting in the past.
The next morning we get up to an amazing sunrise over Rabida – a small island of red pebbled beach and the clearest blue waters we have ever seen. We take another little walk spotting cactus finches and lava lizards in the process, and spectacular views of waves crashing into lava rocks, desert hills (er, I mean dormant volcanoes) rising up around us and the sea all around. We go snorkeling again and this time we see even more – the water is so clear that we easily see to the bottom and dive to investigate starfish, coral and little blennies resting in the sand. We see a huge spotted eagle ray and a green sea turtle. We see white-tipped reef sharks circling in the water below us and a myriad of other tropical fish, alone or in schools, colorful or silvery, in schools, solitary, eating algae off the rocks, synchronized swimming in their schools, diving away from us.
We come out to the shallow beach water, and watch dark green mexican hogfish with their strange head-bumps investigating the debris we kick up with our flippers. We are also fortunate to see a Galapagos penguin, close by and swimming around like a fat underwater bullet. We return to our towels in time for a huge male sealion to walk through our group, unaggressive and curious. He sniffs some of our bags (maybe he doesn’t like the reek of field notebook) before moving along to the ocean.
That afternoon we have an absolutely gorgeous walk on the Island of Santiago. We follow a trail between bushes a bit reminiscent of savannah but not really and it starts to rain – warm water falling all around, the sun doesn’t go away and a rainbow appears behind us curving in front of a mountain. We keep on and see tons more iguanas and sea lions hanging out on the strange black lava landscape that separates the completely dry land from the ocean. It goes on and on, with patterns etched into the rock like uneven ripples. We all just watch the sunset for a while, jotting down field notes and thoughts and probably some poetry too.
The next day we go to Bartolome island and take a walk over the rocky volcanoes. We climb up a mountain of leftover lava, listening in awe as Billy describes how built up gas causes tunnels to form with blow holes at the top. Some of the chutes have caved in and I climb into one for a funny picture, hoping that there arent any snakes farther inside. We next go to Sullivan’s Bay which turns out to be a snorkelling disappointment as most of us get stung by hordes of man-o-war jellyfish, tiny little guys that cause much irritation. Luckily we move along to the next site and hear we are greeted by more fantastic snorkeling – sting rays and more sharks, more fish in general and a clos up view of a penguin. It didn’t do much, just sort of pouted and looked upwards proudly as we swam near and then gathered around the rock it was standing on. Madrid, one of the panga drivers, came by to pick us up from the water and take us to land to get our things before returning to San Jose. I got on board with much difficulty and then begged Madrid to throw a rope in the water so that I could hold on to it as he drove to shore – it was great, effectively being towed along behind the boat, experiencing motor-caused bubbles, still able to see underwater and breathe through the snorkel at the same time.
The boat takes us to Santa Cruz, this time to the city of Porto Ayora – a tourist town mainly, we find out when we go out that night. Much of the income generated on galapagos comes from tourists and it has caused much migration of Ecuadorians to the islands in search of jobs. One of the problems is that most of the money generated goes to the rich owners of the cruise ships and other wealthy people at the top, whereas most of the people who live there or work on the boats don’t get payed as much. A friend tried to find out how much the crew gets paid but Billy wouldn’t tell her. We walk around at night talking to people selling things on the streets or sitting in front of shops, I hang out at a discotecca with some friends afterward.
The next day is spent at the Darwin Research Center, where we learn about giant tortoises and see a few in captivity. These massive reptiles are being bred back into existence at the station. They were hunted by pirates and sailors of the Pacific who saw them as an easy source of meat, and later when settlers introduced species such as pigs and goats, they faced great competition for food, while introduced rats ate their eggs. Billy told us about the Station’s breeding programs and about its hunting programs. Wild chivos, or goats, have been eliminated from many of the smaller islands but the hunting on the larger ones has not met with much success due to extreme weather conditions and sheer landmass in which to find them. We board a bus that takes us up in the mountains into more forested areas, where we encounter a combination of some farmland, some forest and many wild tortoises.
The next morning we snorkel more around two large rocks in the middle of the ocean named ‘El Leon Dormido’, the sleeping lion, where we see Galapagos sharks, far far below us in the deeps. The current is strong here. One of the threats facing Galapagos fish is international fishing corporations sending boats illegaly to fish in the area. Sharks for example, are the favorite of Asian corporations seeking the shark-fin soup industry. They catch sharks, cut their fins off and throw them back into the water.
Our afternoon is relaxed as I endure a long boat ride to San Cristobal island, where we dock at Baquerizo Moreno. Though I find I have a lot of tolerance for boat rocking motion, I do get a bad case of cabin fever and am pleased when we get out for another drive, this time to the only freshwater lake in the entire galapagos, Lago Elhunco, where we watch frigate birds swooping and look for insect for our field investigation projects. We don’t find too many.
The boat leaves port late that night for the island of Espanola. A few friends and I had decided to sleep outside so we could stargaze before sleep, but we were constantly awakened by the crazed rocking of the boat while in motion. It was very strong but luckily only 1 student actually felt sick enough to throw up. We head out early for more snorkeling and unfortunately I decide to chug some very gross juice we were served at breakfast and then proceed to have a handstand competition on the beach before our sea lion counting project. The earth feels like it should be moving, the swimming doesn’t help (though Madrid let out an extremely long rope behind the panga and pulled all 12 of us students around for a while) and later I find myself vomiting behind some thorn bushes lining the beach. Some Hood Mockingbirds, proving their reputation as opportunists followed me and cleaned up. A Galapagos “Drop-off”. And no worries, I instantly felt much better.
That afternoon was the best walk of the whole trip, where we went back to Espanola and trouped amongst the sand and rocks, watching sea lions and hoping they wouldn’t chase us. As a side note, a sea lion jumped into our boat for a nap earlier that day. I missed the whole episode, but it bit Madrid as it was trying to get out, so we were very wary of the territorial bulls barking at us angrily. Madrid was not badly hurt, luckily.
But, point being, Espanola was amazing regarding bird life. It was full of boobies (masked and blue footed, very strange birds I admit) all conducting mating dances all over the ground, some watching eggs lying on the ground (they don’t make nests), others regurgitating to feed young. Everywhere literally. And unafraid of humans, they barely acknowledged our presence. We trouped over iguanas and after skirting around the waves crashing into lava rocks we came upon an albatross – for its reputation as the largest Galapagos bird, it wasn’t that huge and it looked like a big gull really. But quite cute, Billy told us that usually they werent around at this time of the year as they migrate generally a bit later. From his description, it was a bit like seeing the first robin of spring. We saw a Galapagos hawk seated on a rock with its back facing us, looking into the distance as the sun set, a wonderfully pink moment. It was amazing – make sure you go there when you get to Galapagos. Mind the sea lions though, they got somewhat more aggressive as we made our way back, but luckily they were lazy and didn’t chase us hardcore. Their flippers just werent made for running. Overnight the boat took us onwards to Floreana Island – our last full day – and we took a little panga ride around and climbed up some more lava hills. Billy told us about some fairly recent settlers to the area – all crazy germans who had tried to make a life out on the island, generally didn’t succeed very well, and many of whom ended up missing. Nobody really knows the full story but there’s a book about it that I intend to read (Floreana - Lista de Correos for those interested). We also learned that Yate San Jose was haunted by a construction worker killed on some drunken night and that the original boat was burnt down to hide the evidence. Oh the scandal; before hearing the story, I had already coined a joke regarding a poltergeist on board that I liked to call the “Galapaghost”. Billy thought it was hilarious. We also got to climb down into a cave and swim in the dark and in freezing cold water which was a lot of fun. We snorkeled along the beach, swam back to Yate San Jose and then took turns jumping off the top level (10 m or so). Pretty spectacular, the fall was worth it.
Our last bit of snorkeling occurred at a very special location, imagine a crater sticking out of the ocean, named “Corona del Diablo” or Devil’s Crown, it was the sight of some strong cold currents that meant the snorkeling was super chevere. I swam with 5 sharks circling below me, tropical fish all over the place, the current so strong that when we were inside the crater it seemed that we werent even moving when we swam our hardest. I followed Billy through a tunnel under the rocks forming the crater, holding my breath and watching the blue sea changing hues as I rose. I swam with another penguin and later dove deep to investigate a turtle lieing on the sand at the bottom. It was with sadness that we all boarded the pangas again, but Madrid let me hang on to a rope and get pulled along at top speed so I couldn’t complain.
We walked along another Floreanan beach before the sun set that evening and saw a school of 30 or so stingrays swimming along. A huge Galapagos shark came right up to the shore where we were standing which also caused some excitement. On our last day we had the great fortune of fortunes to have been allowed (Xavier asked permission) to go to the island of Daphne Major – yes the legendary island where the Grant research team made some amazing discoveries about natural selection and indeed, evolution itself (read The Beak of the Finch, we all had to before the program’s start). It was awesome. We climbed up a steep rock face to get to a trail winding around a crater filled with boobies and frigate birds. The finches were there too, along with tropic birds and we passed a happy hour just looking down and watching. It was a great final stop before we had to head back to Baltra to catch our flight. What a paradise.