The Origin of Species – Galapagos Islands, Part Uno

A week ago Friday, Jodi, Phil and I left Guayaquil and flew to the Galapagos (Isla Baltra). The Galapagos Islands are named for the saddle-backed Galapagos tortoises, and are located in the Pacific Ocean 604 miles off the coast of Ecuador. The oldest island is thought to have formed between 5 and 10 million years ago. The youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption having occurred last week. The islands, discovered by Europeans in the early 1500s, were originally used by English pirates to steal treasure from the Spaniards, and it wasn’t until the early 19th century that it was used as a base for whalers In 1835, the HMS Beagle made its expedition to the Galapagos for a study of geology and biology, and well…. the rest is an evolution revolution.

We met up with our boat, the Friendship, for what we thought was going to be a 5-day/4- night cruise. We had read mixed reviews of our boat, and it turned out to be just as we all expected…. A mixed bag of great people and shabby accommodations (we basically got what we paid for). The people on our boat were also a mixed crew…. The 3 of us (2 Americans and 1 Canadian, for those of you who cant remember us since we have been gone so long), 1 other American, 1 Dutchman, 2 Israelis, 1 Brit, 1 Chinese, 1 Brazilian and 6 Ecuadorians. A United Nations of sorts, all bonding together to enjoy all the beauty and wildlife the Galapagos has to offer.

Our not-so-safe boat’s group on the beach.

That afternoon, we met our tour guide (Fabian) and the rest of the crew. As a side note, we ended up really liking Fabian, especially his pronunciation of most words, such as Galapagos (pronounced by him as Gaal-AAAAA-pagos). Anyway, we left the boat via our dingy (sans life-jackets, all part of the tourist boat adventure) and out to Playa Bachas to see some wildlife. We were greeted by crabs and pelicans and marine iguanas.

Later that afternoon we got in some snorkeling, the least interesting aquatic life of the trip, but still a great introduction of what was to come. That evening, we ate dinner and got to know our new boatmates (all of whom were lovely, and many of them became our instant friends). As we headed down to our sweaty cabin, the boat was swaying rather rapidly. It became quickly evident what “tourist class accommodations” were made of…. we rocked back and forth all night, and saw our share of extra large grasshoppers (which terrified me) and cockroaches. C´est la vie.

The next day we headed to South Plaza. We arrived on the island and were met by tons of sea lions, lava lizards and crabs. The sea lions (and their pups) aren’t intimidated by humans at all. You can literally walk right up to them….

and only if you get within a few inches will they even hiss and “waddle” towards you. It was amazing. In the US, you have to go to Sea World or a zoo to see the sea lions this close…. in the Galapagos all you have to do is go ashore. In the afternoon we had a few hours of great snorkeling… the ocean is as clear as stained glass, and we saw tons of fish (parrot fish, puffer fish, and even some sting rays and turtles). That evening we again braved the rough seas, and most of us took anti-sea-sickness drugs to weather the waves.

On day three we arrived on the island of Española. The island is picturesque…. beautiful white beaches offset the brilliant blue pacific, spotted of course with many sea lions, lounging as if they were beachgoers on a Caribbean resort. We again swam and snorkeled, and that afternoon we headed to Punta Suarez on the other side of Española. There we saw an unbelievable amount of wildlife, all within inches of us. The area is littered with colorful marine iguanas, sea lions, the largest of the lava lizards, the only colony of albatross in the Galapagos, mocking birds, and even the Galapagos hawk. And of course, the island boasts boobies… an endemic bird to the Galapagos, both the nazca and blue footed varieties. Knowing the maturity level of the 3 of us, I’m sure you can imagine our afternoon conversation. (see pictures of boobies and actual boobies below).

That evening, we found out that our 5-day/4-night cruise was being cut short. It turns out we had been sailing around with a broken engine and that the boat was in desperate need of repair. This news, by the way, came to us right before we were to embark on an overnight, 6 hour sail to another island. We were told we were going to compress all our activities into the morning of the next day, sail for a few hours in the afternoon, and then stay in a hotel on Isla Santa Cruz that evening (with a morning tour of the Darwin Research Center the following day). As you can imagine, we were all pretty annoyed…. I mean, despite the roaches and rocky seas, we had paid for 4 nights aboard the now-newly-renamed-SS Minnow. Anyhow, this was all beyond our control. Matters weren’t made any better when at around 11pm, a few hours into our sail, a few of us noticed steam coming out of the walls near our rooms. We alerted the rather bizarre mechanic who assured us everything was fine. Twenty minutes later, the boat stopped, and the captain and the mechanic whizzed by us to the engine room. It turns out the engine was taking in sea water and had overheated (something the captain blamed on the mechanic, but some of us are still convinced that it was just flat out broken). Needless to say, on fumes and luck, we made it to the island of Floreana.

In Floreana, we disembarked on a brownish-green sandy beach (the color is from the olivine in the surrounding mountains). We hiked around the island, seeing a colony of flamingos and a gorgeous beach on the opposite end. The beach was crawling with crabs, and in the shallows of the ocean, we spotted a few sting rays. Afterwords, we snorkeled for an hour or so around a rock known as Devil’s Crown. The aquatic sightings were amazing…. Sea lions and hundreds of fish. Perfect. Later we made our way to Post Office Bay, where we saw the original “ post office” of the Galapagos (a few hundred years ago sailors used to leave letters for their loved ones at home, and other sailors leaving the Galapagos and heading back would take the post and mail from their homeland. this is still how the office operates, postcards are left by visitors and anyone from that country can take them home and mail them. We took a few to mail in our next destination, South Africa. An interesting yet rather inefficient process.) We also hiked down a lava tube (a cave left by flowing lava of a prior eruption). Then we sailed for a few hours back to Isla Santa Cruz, where we would stay for the next 5 days.

Recap: The experience of this 4 day boat cruise is beyond explanation. The ocean is as expansive as it is pristine; the wildlife as accessible as it is breathtaking. All this and the knowledge that Darwin (of whom I’m a huge fan) came ashore on the HMS Beagle and developed and honed his theories of natural selection and survival of the fittest (for those of us who are Type A, this is a crucial justification to our otherwise obsessive personalities). If our pictures manage to convey just half of what we saw and experienced, all of you will be saving up for your own Galapagos expedition.

-Jess