Six Days in Paradise - A Visit to the Galapagos - June 7 - 12

The Galapagos Islands are like jewels floating in the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles/1000 km off the coast of Ecuador. Visiting them is like going to Paradise. There are 13 main islands, six small islands and about 42 islets spread throughout the Marine Reserve around the islands.

We flew from Quito to Guayaquil and then over to Baltra in the Galapagos Islands last Thursday. The very smooth TAME flight took just over 3 hours. When we arrived, we, along with 13 others, were met by a guide and ushered through the 1 1/2 hour process of bus ride, ferry, and further bus ride to Puerto Ayora in the southern part of Santa Cruz where our yacht "Spondylus" was waiting. In Puerto Ayora we climbed into the rubber dinghies which took us across the harbour to the yacht. Then braving the significant swell of the ocean, we clambered off the dinghy and up the steps on board. None of us were prepared for the gigantic rolling of the yacht, and we staggered around as if terribly drunk before making it to a seat and sitting down.

We were introduced to the boat and taken to our cabins. Luckily, ours was on the top deck with 3 others, and we were able to leave our cabin door open to let the sea breeze blow gently over us as we slept. The cabin was simple, a huge bed on the left side, a cupboard in the middle, then the bathroom on the right side and a small space for standing in between the lower two thirds of the bed and the bathroom door. On the same level as our cabin, there was a sun deck. On the level below a sitting area, a bar, and the dining area, another couple of cabins, and then on the floor below that another couple of cabins and the crew.The inside of the boat was made of beautiful, highly-polished wood. See this website for facts about the Spondylus: http://www.galapagosyachts.com/spondylus_specificationes.html. I note though, that there seem to have been some renovations done to the boat since this picture was taken, more specifically, the cabin area on the top deck has been expanded.

After the briefing and the introduction to our cabins, we went ashore and were taken by bus to the Highlands of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was quite varied in appearance. In the northern part near the airport, the landscape was scrub, with small ash-coloured trees, the leaves having dropped due to the dryness, and cactus making the landscape quite bleak. However, in the highlands and in the southern part, the vegetation was quite lush, and in addition there was farming and banana plantations. We went to see giant tortoises which were in captivity for protection. What amazing animals. I couldn´t imagine having to carry shells around the size of theirs. Then we took a walk into a lava tunnel, which included crawling about one meter under the lava to get out the other side. The lava had come from lava flows from the volcano on the island millions of years ago.

After our walk, it was back to the yacht and dinner then after dinner, we took the dinghy back over to Puerto Ayora for a last hit at the internet, then back to the boat around 10.30 p.m. and bed. Around 2 a.m. we set sail for the Island of Floreana where we dropped anchor about 5.30 a.m.

Routine on the boat was rigorous, and we were up each morning at 6.30 a.m. for breakfast at 7.00 a.m. and ready to leave the boat on our first trek at 7.45 a.m. We visited Floreana on Friday, had a really choppy sail to Isabella on Friday night and visited Isabella on Saturday. Saturday afternoon we sailed for about 3 hours to San Christobal. On Sunday around 11 a.m. we sailed to Santa Fee arriving about 2 p.m. On Sunday evening we sailed to North Seymour and on Monday, after a trek on North Seymour we sailed into Baltra where our trip ended.

The most fantastic thing about the Galapagos is the ability to walk among all the animals without them being afraid of you. It is a true experience of man and animals living together. We had wonderful opportunities to see and wander amongst all the animals. My favorourites of course were the sea lions. The females, juveniles and pups are endlessly playful and you can literally kneel down beside them - but not touch them - and they look up at you with such loving eyes it brings tears to your own eyes. On one occasion I was swimming and a baby sea lion wandered over to my towel and got on top of it, then started to go into my open bag and toss out the contents, then lie its head on the bag before getting bored and wandering off. A number of people were watching and apparently the guide took a video. When Ray came back he couldn´t understand why everything was so scattered!! The dominant males can be a little scary if you approach them or enter into their territory and on a couple of occasions one would make his statement and block our path or come and hassle us on the beach. The baby pups were still breast feeding and it was funny watching a baby who had temporarily lost its Mummy waddle across the beach stopping to investigate all the other moms until he finally found the right one that he could suckle up to.

My next favourite was the Blue Footed Booby. These are amazing grey and white birds with pointed blue/grey beaks, and vivid blue feet. People are not sure why the feet are blue unless it is to disguise them when they are flying and fish look up and all they see are the blue feet which are the same colour as the water. These birds dive straight into the sea to catch their food from a great height. Many of them had eggs, and there were also lots of fluffy white babies hidden under the male and female birds caring for them. The males do a wonderful dance to attract their mates, then very sweetly offer a potential mate a twig. If the female is interested, she accepts the twig and they become a couple and make a nest together where the eggs are laid. We were lucky to see this ritual played out a number of times.

The yellow warbler is also a very common bird on the islands. It is a tiny, pretty, yellow-green colour bird that will fly very close to you and again seems to have no fear of people. The other cheeky bird, but not as pretty is the mockingbird. This will actually walk all over you, land on your head, etc. etc. and is generally very brazen, but full of character.

Then there are all the other wonderful animals we saw: pink flamingoes, the giant tortoise, the turtles, the frigate birds, the red footed booby, the Nazca booby, the waved albatross, the Galapagos hawk, the finches, the lava lizzard, the Galapagos Penguin - we only saw a couple of these because 65% of their population was wiped out by the last El Niño - but it is slowly coming back. Fun, but not so attractive, were the marine iguanas and the land iguanas both of which we saw basking in the sun, the land iguanas on the rocks on land, and the marine iguanas on the rocks in the ocean. And then there were the Sally Light Foot Crabs. Hundreds of these crabs covered the rocks so that their red bodies and yellow faces stood out from quite a distance away. Their backs were carved to look like some Inca pottery carvings - they were quite splendid.

On the Sunday when we sailed from San Cristobal to Santa Fee we saw a right whale which circled our boat a couple of times giving us a wonderful display of his majesticness. Then a little further on we came across hundreds of dolphin. They were magnificent. They sped along beside the boat as if racing it, they danced and played in the ocean around us, and we laughed and smiled at their antics.

We were also given a couple of opportunities a day to snorkel in the Pacific either from the dinghies, or off the beach, and we were able to see a variety of sea fish and giant turtles including rays, sharks, and of course to swim with the sea lions. Ray had a really neat experience of two sea lions playing around him. He said it was only a little scary when their noses come straight towards you and then they veer off at the last minute never touching you!

We did have one rather disturbing incident, which I shall let Ray tell you about, but we are happy to say, all was well in the end. I am going to add my bit as to the occurance. We were all dropped in the ocean to snorkel off a substantial outcropping of volcanic formations I understood that the majority of the people were swimming counter clockwise around the outcropping. I followed and then as I understood that the others would do, I cut into the center. The currents here were quite strong and it took a lot of effort to get back to where we were dropped as I thought the others were doing.

As it turned out they, instead of swimming completely through the center against the strong current, went with the current and were picked up on the backside of the outcropping. When I eventually made it back to where we were dropped I signalled two boats thinking they were our group and either they did not see me or chose to ignore my signal as they knew I wasn`t from their boat. Then the broken snorkel pipe which I had caused me to inhale salt water twice as the surf was quite high. I then thought this is not on and headed towards the rocks to see if it was possible to get up on them until our boat returned which is what I did. I did not realize that both of our boats had returned to the main boat without me and there was a momentary panic as to where I was. They eventually returned after I sat on the rocks for about 20 to 30 minutes so it all turned out OK. Meanwhile, Liz was panicking back on the boat, as she went back a little earlier and had told the Guide she had not seen me since she got into the water. ...When we see everyone we will elaborate on this tale.

We also vited Baquirzo Moreno on San Cristobal. This is the capital of the Galapagos and has about 4000 residents. It was a small, quiet town with a modern sea front, cafes, internet, cafes, restaurants, and small shops.

We spent Monday in Puerto Ayora after the cruise and took this opportunity to visit The Charles Darwin Research Centre which recapped all the information we had learned and had a couple of displays of giant tortoise breeding stations, and land iguanas. In the afternoon, we walked out of town to beautiful Tortuga Bay and sat on the beach and felt sorry that our holiday was over. I think it would be wonderful to volunteer in the Galapagos, or even stay there for a few months.


The older islands, which were the ones we visited, were formed some five million years ago when underwater volcanoes erupted pushing up volcanic rock and forming the islands, many of which have volcanoes on them. Because of the remoteness of the islands, the fact that 3 currents merge at the islands, and the violent way in which they were formed, the wildlife on the islands is quite unique as it has adapated to surivive the harsh conditions in which they exist.

The history of the islands is also harsh. They were discovered in 1535 by the Spanish and from then until they were incorporated by Ecuador in 1832 they were used by the European and American bucaneers and pirates, then after the pirates came the whalers and sealers all of whom used the islands as a refugio. Charles Darwin visited there for about 5 weeks in 1835 and he recognized the unique qualities of the islands and made observations on which he based his theory of evolution. Once appended to Ecuador, there were several stories of families going there to settle and starting various business, but all of them seemed to fail, and the people either returned to their homeland, or mysteriously disappeared. An exception to this is the Wittmer family, some members of which still live there today.

A penal colony was established on one of the islands (Floreana) but the soldiers sent there to look after the criminals fled the island leaving the prisoners to their fate. As late as 1944 another penal colony was established on Isabela. This was abandoned when there was a riot and mass escape by the prisoners.

Finally, in 1959 the islands were declared a national park, and in 1979 the archipelago was declared a World Heritage Site and a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 1985. Later in December 2001, the marine lands around the islands were declared a World Natural Heritage Site in an attempt to control illegal fishing. In 1997 the government passed a law preventing new tourist operations until 2005 and visitor levels are restricted to 65,000 a year. Despite all of this, UNESCO is currently conducting a survey and will make a report on whether or not to declare the islands a "threatened area". The feeling that the wild life in the area is threatened is due, according to our guide, to a number of reasons: (1) Lack of enforcing the existing tourist controls; (2) Illegal residents on the islands who set up tourist operations that are not licensed, but as there is no policing of the regulations these people are allowed to continue; (3) natural causes such as El Niño - for example, 65% of the population of the Gallapagos Penguins were wiped out by the last El Niño, (4) Introduction over the years of domestic animals such as goats, cats, dogs, horses, donkeys; (5) Introduction of foreign plant life on the island by the settlers, (6) the devastation caused to the tortoise, land iguanas,turtles and birds by the sailers and pirates who captured them for food; (7) whalers and the fur sealers. Another contributor to the depletion of natural species on the islands was the American naval base which was housed on Santa Cruz in the second world war. For example, all Giant Tortoises are now extinct on this island because their food source has been removed.

For more information see: http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/GalapagosWWW/Colonization.html

I am sure that none of the people who have inhabited the islands and added to the destruction of the wild life have intended to do so, but lets hope that Ecuador in combination with UNESCO can find a solution which will satisfy the local communities and preserve the wild life. If not, the amazing wild life in this very unique part of the world will be destroyed.