Galapagos: The Most Unique Place We´ve Ever Been

  Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Saturday, November 5, 2005

The Galapagos islands are simply unbelievable. The islands are extremely famous in scientific circles. The islands were created by a hotspot in the earthīs crust, and continually move southeast at the rate of growth of a fingernail. So, the oldest islands in the southeast section of the archipelago are upwards of 500 million years old, while the youngest in the northwest is 500 thousand years old. Given that they are over 600 miles offshore of Ecuador, the amazing question in science is how life made itīs way to the islands. This is what caused Darwin and so many others to study here and see what species survived over time given the various changes the islands undertook (such as catastrophic events).

When we first got to Ecuador we began talking to all the travel agencies to investigate what types of last minute deals on cruises through the islands might be available. We had read that to truly see the Galapagos you need to be on one of the boats that goes off for days at a time. At first we began to wonder whether we would actually be able to go for two reasons: there wasnīt much available and a visit to the islands comes with a relatively hefty pricetag. BUT, it seemed providence intervened and we found an unbelievable deal on one of the nicest boats in the islands for one-third of the normal price, and we were even upgraded to a suite in the process.

So, our journey to the islands began with 3 flights from Quito to get us to the island of San Cristobal which is in the South East part of the islands. There we began a 4 day boat journey followed by a few extra days on the islands alone. You can find a map of the islands below for reference:



DAY 1: Once on San Cristobal island we were picked up by our ship crew and instantly found sea lions lounging unafraid on boats, park benches, and generally everywhere that people tend to be. It was already obvious we were in a very unique place. We were taken to the ship where we were greeted with a drink, appetizers, and an amazing room that was nicer than 95% of the rooms weīve had in 8 months so far. Amy and I were definitely far from the average age on this ship (probably around 55) but we quickly managed to make a number of friends. We also began to realize that for some reason we had as nice of a room as people that had paid much more months and months ago. Moving on, lunch was a HUGE buffet of amazing food, which was a foreshadowing of what we would have each meal on this boat. After lunch we were taken back on shore to a tortoise redevelopment project and got to see a large number of giant tortoises in a natural habitat where outside animals were not introduced. This also included a baby tortoise named Genesis that was quite cute as he walked around the premises VERY slowly but energetically (for a tortoise that is). At night we had an unbelievable 4 course meal and sat with a great couple from San Diego. They were quite interested in our travels and bought a bottle of wine for all of us to enjoy during dinner to celebrate the beginning of our voyage. At night we were also given a briefing of the next days activities and started to get very excited.

DAY 2: We woke up to an announcement that we had reached the island of Espaņola, the only place in the world where the waved albatross nests, and they were currently breeding on the island. We began by hiking through the island to the nesting site and soon found these amazing birds courting each other by kissing, squawking, and nipping each other with their beaks. Their wingspan can be over 9 feet, which is the largest of all birds in the world. Once they are born and can fly they go to sea for 5 years before coming back to land, and then they only come for a few months out of the year to breed before returning to sea. Also of note, these birds mate for life and will not have another partner in their lifetime, even if the other dies. When they return to the island they search for each other until they find each other and then they mate and have only one baby per year. Following the albatross we walked through nesting areas of blue footed boobies (yes, thatīs really the name), masked boobies, numerous other birds that only exist here, and hundreds of marine iguanas. We finally arrived at a beach famous for its sea lion colony. And these sea lions are VERY playful. This was one of our best experiences of our entire trip. While on the beach, the baby sea lions were so curious that two of them ran right up to us and start smelling our hands, feet and staring us in the eyes. It was so fun we could hardly contain ourselves as they stumbled over each other and over us as they investigated. We were the last people off the beach and had the pups to ourselves way down at the far end. The parents obviously didnīt mind too much. Mom came and checked us out at one point, then decided to go for a swim while the kids played with us for a while longer.

DAY 3: We now arrived at a very rare site, the island of Isabella. Due to itīs distance from the other main islands very few boats can go there, but ours was one of the privileged ones that makes the trip. Hereīs an amazing story about this place. In the 1954 a ship passed this part of Isabella on itīs way to do some research. The next day it passed by again and the crew couldnīt believe their eyes. Overnight the island had a huge new section that had uplifted shoreline was uplifted nearly 15 feet (4 meters). The coastline was driven 3/4 of a mile further out to sea, exposing giant coral heads and stranding marine organisms on what was now on shore. A Disney film crew visited the site shortly afterwards and discovered skeletons of sharks, sea turtles and lobsters unable to find the ocean from the rapidly rising land. Schools of fish were found stranded in newly formed tide pools. It was amazing to realize the history of this place as we stood there. If that wasnīt enough, the volcanoe on the island had been erupting for about a week, but just finished by the time we got there so we unfortunately didnīt get to see any lava flows. But, we got to see the endemic land iguana with its bright colors.

We moved across the bay to the island of Fernandina, which is one of the only places in the galapagos with penguins and the flightless cormorant that apparently survived because it was more adept at living in the sea during a catostrophic even in history than the cormorants that could fly. There we had more amazing opportunities to see these animals and got to interact with more sea lions, iguanas, etc. We also saw schools of spotted eagle rays right under our dingy boat along with huge sea turtles right off the side.

DAY 4: This was our last day on the cruise, and it ended early as we were delivered back to port on Santa Cruz Island (the main island in the Galapagos). We were very sad to leave, but we knew we had more to come as we were not going to be travelling independently while on this island.

Hopefully some of the pictures can give you an idea of what surprises there are here in the Galapagos.