Glorious Galapagos

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“The earth is not a legacy from our ancestors, but a loan from our children”

Native American Traditional (quote on our bathroom wall)

We have only been here twenty four hours and we have already seen more wildlife than we expected to see in a fortnight. This place is incredible! John has already taken 203 photos and Viv took 65 before the battery died (must remember to charge up every night). We have swum in a lagoon with Marine Iguanas, seen Giant Tortoises, Land Iguanas, Booby Birds (but not the blue-footed ones yet), Pelicans, Cormorants, a small Ray, Sea Lions and numerous Darwin Finches of different colours and sizes. We haven´t hardly started yet, not having left the town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, where we are staying.

We left Quito early yesterday morning for a three and a half hour flight to Baltra Island in the Galapagos Islands, arriving at 12.00 midday local time (GMT – 6 hours, CET – 7 hours). We are just below the Equator. The whole Galapagos archipelago is a national park and entry is restricted; only so many flights allowed each week. At Quito airport one has to obtain a certificate of registration ($10) before being able to get boarding cards; without the certificate, no boarding card. Luggage is checked for prohibited items, seeds, food stuffs and anything that could upset the ecosystem of the islands. The ecological environment of the Galapagos Islands is fragile. On arrival on Baltra Island, a trained sniffer dog jumps all over the luggage, whilst passengers have to stand and wait behind a barrier and one pays $100 dollars per head for park entrance fee on passing through Arrivals. Thereafter, a free shuttle bus (rammed) delivers passengers to a small ferry boat to cross over to Santa Cruz Island (there is nothing on Baltra except the tiny airport). A 42 km journey across Santa Cruz brings one to the only town on the island, Puerto Ayora; human population of the whole archipelago is only 19,000 people, so even Puerto Ayora, “capital” of the Galapagos, is a small town. Santa Cruz reminds us a bit of Fiji, despite the fact that the people are racially different and there are distinct creatures like huge giant tortoises here; it has the same friendly ambience. It is also very verdant, not all barren granite rock as we thought.

We have a lovely little one-bed apartment, up a flight of pretty tiled steps, in a little backstreet with a tin roof! It is right near the fishermen´s dock, where Pelicans and Sea Lions “beg” for scraps of fish when the fish are filleted. The Ecuadorians call Sea Lions, “Lobos del Mar” (sea wolves) and they really are more like friendly dogs. They have never had any natural predators on land, so have no fear of humans. One baby Sea Lion was asleep outside the bank; people just stepped around it! They are everywhere. It is quite remarkable.

The biological isolation of the volcanic Galapagos archipelago, fed by both tropical and cold currents, has led to an astounding variety of habitats and species. Some of these species, however, are endangered. New laws are to come in over the next few years to restrict tourist visits to just eight days and also to ban plastic bags and polystyrene packaging from the islands. On average plastic bags are used for just 15 minutes. The time that it takes for a bag to biodegrade is 200 years. Mankind needs to stop using plastic bags. Thousands of marine animals and birds die every year as a direct result of human addiction to plastic bags (for e.g. turtles get their heads stuck in them and suffocate).

The diversity of species on the Galapagos Islands is quite remarkable…

“La historia natural de estas islas es sumamente curiosa y bien merece toda nuestra atención”

“The natural history of these islands is eminently curious and well deserves attention”

Charles Darwin 1845

Many people believe that only mammals, notably mankind, use tools. Darwin noted otherwise; two species of “Darwin´s Finches” (unique to the Galapagos) use twigs or cactus spins to extract insect larvae from holes in the dead branches of trees. Between one and two million years ago, the common ancestors of “Darwin´s Finches” made their way across 1,000 miles of ocean to the Galapagos and there evolved into the variety of unique finches seen there today, ranging in size and colour, some like tiny yellow canaries, others, the Giant Finches are the size of Blackbirds.

There are two species of Land Iguana as well as Marine Iguana on the Galapagos. They live on all of the islands except Baltra. In WW2, thousands of US servicemen as well as Ecuadorian personnel built and occupied an airbase on Baltra. Predation by humans and introduced cats, dogs and goats, caused the most rapid known extinction of a population of reptiles. Happily, they are quite prolific on Santa Cruz and today we swam with some Marine Iguana.

This morning, we set off up the road out of town, to visit the Darwin Research Centre. There we visited the Giant Tortoise nursery. The tortoises are an endangered species, due to goats having eaten most of the cacti that tortoises like to eat, as well as pigs, cats and dogs eating eggs. Feral dogs have been eradicated but feral cats are still a problem and the goat population is being controlled. Before man introduced these domestic animals to the islands, the tortoises knew no predators and existed in their tens of thousands. Today´s population is 90% less than it once was. Hence the nursery…

Eggs are collected from those islands where they are in danger and hatched at the Research centre. The babies are then put into pens covered in fine mesh, to protect them from rats, until they are big enough to go into larger fenced areas, where they can learn to rock climb and care for themselves before they are returned to the wild. They are always returned to those islands from whence they came.

At the Darwin centre we also saw some huge adult Giant Turtles as well as yellow Land Iguanas. After this we made our way down to a little beach, which we had all to ourselves, for our picnic lunch and to snorkel and swim. The water wasn´t cold as we expected it to be, having been told that the cold currents came in at this time of year. In fact it was warmer than Florida. We didn´t have the beach quite to ourselves. We shared it with some Marine Iguanas, Booby birds and Pelicans. We saw about a dozen Marine Iguanas, both on the beach and swimming in the water. Awesome!

We are now back at our little flat chilling out. It is about 30 degrees outside but surprisingly cool in here despite the tin roof; high ceilings and plenty of windows to catch the sea breeze. It is just as well, because there is no air con and no fans either. Tomorrow or the next day we plan to take a snorkel tour out around the bay. We are going to check out the prices tonight when we go out to eat. There are dozens of tour operators along the street so we need to seek out the deals! Loving this place already and we are most fortunate to be here for two weeks. We shall probably spend a week here on Santa Cruz because there is so much to see, and then get a ferry to one or two other islands. What a hard life this is!

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Photos

Tortuga Gigante
These guys are the heaviest reptiles on the planet and weigh about 250 kilos.

Fishing harbour near our flat in Pelican Bay, Puerto Ayora
Fishing is low-key. No large boats are allowed within 40,nautical miles of the archipelago

"Where's my breakfast?"
Fish market, Puerto Ayora

Sea lions playing in the fishing harbour
They sleep on the pier as well!

"Sea Wolf" on guard!
Baby sea lion asleep outside the bank

Red crabs everywhere
These are not good to eat, so there are thousands of them

Land Iguana
About one metre long

Very old Giant Tortoise
They live up to 170 years old

Baby Goant Tortoises
In the nursery

One of Darwin's Finches
Giant Finch, about the size of a Blackbird and only found in the Galapagos

Our beach...
...all to ourselves except for...

...the marine Iguanas
They are about one and a half metres long, nose to tail

Swimming with Iguanas
John in the foreground, Iguana in the background