the galapagos - ecoventura · galapagos penguins and fl ightless cormorants, together with the...
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Islands of FireThe Galapagos Islands teem with wildlife, above and below the water. Even the rocks are alive and constantly threatening to erupt as volcanoes vent their fury in this spectacular and historic place.
The Galapagos
By Tony Karacsonyi
Born of fi re as the tips of submarine
volcanoes, the Galapagos Islands is a place where
evolution can be observed ‘in-situ’. Hundreds
of kilometres from mainland Ecuador, animals
and plants set adrift have somehow found and
colonised these desert islands. Floating rafts of
vegetation, wind, air currents and oceanic drift
have all helped this colonisation, otherwise know
as “sweepstakes dispersal”.
Birds displaced from migratory routes
landed here, and sea birds carried seeds and
invertebrates. Animals set adrift in the ocean
currents came from North, Central and South
“Another feature of these isles is their emphatic ‘uninhabitableness’. It is deemed fi t for… the
jackel itself; …but the encantadas refuse to harbour even the outcasts of the beasts. Man and wolf alike disown them. Little but reptile life is here found; tortoises, lizards… and that strangest anomaly of outlandish nature, the iguano. No voice, no lo, no howl is heard; the chief sound of life here is a hiss” – Herman Melville, from las Encantadas, 1841.
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America and the Caribbean. Californian sea lions
and land birds came from North America, while
pink fl amingos and Darwin fi nches came from the
Caribbean. Land iguanas, giant tortoises, pelicans,
cormorants and boobies arrived from South
America. Fur sea lions and penguins travelled from
the Antarctic.
Then there was Charles Darwin, the most
famous of all visitors to the Galapagos. He
arrived aboard the HMS Beagle on September
15, 1835. The HMS Beagle spent fi ve weeks in
the archipelago, during which the 26-year-old
naturalist visited Chatham, Charles, Albemarle
and James Islands. He spent 19 days on shore
collecting and observing fl ora and fauna in this
‘living laboratory of evolution’. In 1859, Darwin
released the fi rst edition of his work The origin
of species by means of Natural Selection, which
sparked a scientifi c revolution and challenged
religious beliefs.
Our motor yacht, Letty, lay off Fernandina
Island in the Western Galapagos, a place where
the islands are bathed in the colder, nutrient-rich
waters of the Cromwell Current. The captain,
Wilson, took us near shore and armed with mask
and snorkel, we slipped into the green waters.
Marine iguanas scampered on shore and within
seconds we were examined by a huge green
turtle. “This place is alive,” I thought, as a vast
school of black-striped salema fi shes buzzed
me. Marine iguanas swam on the surface, trailing
prehistoric tails. On the rocks, there were
Galapagos penguins and fl ightless cormorants,
together with the bright Sally Lightfoot crabs.
Fernandina is the youngest of the Galapagos
archipelago – less than 700,000 years old. The
‘Hot Spot’ theory held by geologists today says
that there are stationary areas of intense heat in
the earth’s mantle that cause the crust to melt
and give rise to volcanoes. Every now and again,
there’s a build-up of pressure and a mild volcanic
eruption, producing lots of lava.
CRATE COLLAPSEIn June, 1968, the caldera of Fernandina changed
dramatically when it’s fl oor, a block two
kilometres round, fell by 350 metres over nine
days. The caldera was clouded in choking dust
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and the crater lake disappeared. Some 2000
white-cheeked pintail ducks and land iguanas
disappeared, too.
Fernandina is still the most volcanically active
island in the archipelago, with a dome-shaped
cone that rises to almost 1500 metres. Its caldera
is now 900 metres deep and six kilometres round.
The Galapagos archipelago consists of thirteen
major and six minor islands, with 49 smaller
rock formations, all spread over 27,000 square
kilometres. These equatorial volcanic islands
erupted above the Pacifi c Ocean 950km west of
Ecuador. They fi rst broke through the sea fl oor 7-
9 million years ago, and still show volcanic activity
– seven volcanoes have erupted in the past 15
years alone.
The Galapagos Islands sit on top of the Nazca
Plate, close to the junction with the Cocos Ridge.
The plates shift along the Galapagos Rift and the
East Pacifi c Rise, which is making the islands move
south-eastward at more than seven cm per year.
The eastern islands are older than those in the
west. Fernandina and Isabela, are the youngest
– less than one million years old.
We stepped ashore at Punta Espinosa,
which means Spiny Point in Spanish. A lava/sand
promontory, this place is surrounded by six
volcanoes on Isabela Island, which lies across the
Bolivar Channel. Stepping ashore onto the black
lava from our panga – the local name for a small
dinghy – Sally Lightfoot crabs scuttled on the
green algae in the tidal zone. A pile of marine
iguanas lay sunning themselves on the solidifi ed
lava. As their body temperatures increased, they
made their way to the ocean to feed on green
algae, above and below water level. Further along,
a huge whale skeleton lay on some sand and an
inlet yielded endemic fl ightless cormorants.
Here we enjoyed the cormorants fl apping
their short wings. Sally Lightfoot crabs and marine
iguanas lay all around. Sea lions were playing in the
shallows. Distant views of volcanoes made for a
splendid vista. Our natural history guides, Harry
Jimenez (alias Loco Harry) and Jose Luis Castillo
(alias Pepe) were a wealth of information, making
the fi eld trips most enjoyable.
The islands’ climate is greatly determined by
the ocean currents. In the cooler dry season – July
to December – the Humboldt Current keeps the
islands much cooler than you would expect in an
equatorial region. During the warmer, wet season
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– January to June – there’s actually minimal rain on
the coasts.
DOLPHIN ENCOUNTERSThe colder waters of Fernandina and Isabela
Island are great for dolphin and whale watching
– striped, common and spinner dolphins and pilot
whales abound. Nowhere have I had such amazing
encounters with dolphins as in the Galapagos.
There must have been 70 dolphins, some of
which congregated around the bow of our boat.
Jumping into the ocean, I cleared the bubbles in
my mask to see dolphins and a 5-foot Galapagos
shark – so sharks do swim with dolphins. Dolphins
were zooming in to see us from all around, often
in pairs, peeling off when only two metres away.
The sheer experience of being in the ocean with
so many dolphins around checking us out was one
of my life’s greatest experiences.
With some reluctance, we left the dolphins
and headed over to the island to scuba dive. We
swam along an underwater cliff with an entourage
of sea lions and hundreds of Pacifi c creole fi sh,
until we reached a point where two currents
collided. Here I saw a scalloped hammerhead
shark, eagle ray, green turtle and no less than fi ve
white-tip reef sharks. The funniest thing was that
the sea lions were playing tag with the reef sharks.
The sea lions were diving down and chasing, then
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nipping the shark’s tail. Whenever there was a nip,
the shark would give a good fl ick of its tail.
The fi sh life in the Galapagos is fascinating and
many of the fi sh look like overgrown versions of
exotic and colourful African cichlids (ornamental
aquarium fi sh to the uninitiated), with long
fi lamentous fi ns. Even the giant damselfi sh look
like our one spot chromis, but on a gargantuan
scale. Some of the more remarkable species
were the Pacifi c creole fi sh – looks like a fusilier;
the Mexican hogfi sh – hump-headed with long,
streaming fi ns; the guinea fowl puffer – yellow
puffer fi sh and Galapagos garden eels – named
‘Anguila Jardin de Galapagos’ in Spanish.
The marine iguanas on Espanola Island – called
Christmas iguanas – are also vibrant, with spashes
of pink and green.
Each island has something different to offer.
At Genovesa Island, we anchored in Darwin Bay,
an ancient caldera. Here we climbed to a bluff
named The Tower, to see sea birds nesting in the
salt bush. There were red-footed boobies, red-
billed tropic birds, swallow tail gulls, storm petrels
and magnifi cent frigatebirds, sporting bright red
infl atable throat pouches.
SHEEPISH SHARKSLater, we cooled off with a snorkel and went
shark spotting. What actually happened is that
the Galapagos sharks spotted us and circled a
metre away. While none of us were really scared,
I did hear a few nervous shrieks and some of
the husbands were thrust in front of the placid
shark by anxious wives. All good fun! Some of
the lovelier fi sh to be seen were giant damsel
fi sh, razor surgeonfi sh, morish idol, bump-head
parrotfi sh and Cortez rainbow wrasse. Bu the
sharks were the absolute highlight!
A beach landing at Genovesa Island delighted
us with sea lion cubs suckling on the beach, while
red-footed boobies watched on with fl uffy white
chicks in nests.
At Santiago Island, we landed on a black sand
beach with sea lions, which later proved to be
one of our most enjoyable swimming spots. On
land, after a hike past old salt mine relics, we
came across an area of grottoes – deep pools in
which fur seal lions lolled. This species was close
to extinction not so long ago. Along the beach we
watched marine iguanas, American oystercatchers
and lava lizards go about their business.
On Bartolome Island, we took the summit
trail past splatter cones to an awesome lookout,
with views of Sullivan Bay, distant volcanoes and
lava fi elds.
At Isabela Island, we climbed to a brackish
water crater lake, then onto a cone with superb
views of lava fi elds. Exploring Tagus Cove by
panga, we saw blue-footed boobies, sea lions,
Galapagos hawkes, pelicans and Galapagos
penguins. Tagus Cove abounds with marine life.
The cove is adorned, somewhat controversially, in
graffi ti, dating back to the 1800s.
At Cerro Dragon, you can see endemic
land iguanas, orange yellow in colour. They
were once part of Darwin Station’s breeding
program Greater fl amingos can be seen on the
salt water lagoon.
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Off San Cristobal Island, we cruised the
majestic Kicker Rock, also known as Leon
Dormido. There were green turtles everywhere,
with sea lions lolling near shore and red-billed
tropic birds overhead.
At Santa Cruz, near the bustling tourist town
of Puerto Ayora, we toured the Charles Darwin
Research Station and the Galapagos National Park
headquarters. Here we met ‘Lonesome George’,
a giant tortoise adopted by park staff. George was
found in 1971, when wardens from the Galapagos
National Park were hunting non-native goats on
Pinta Island. The last reported sighting of giant
tortoises on Pinta was in 1906.
Scientists took ‘Lonesome’ to the captive
breeding program at the Charles Darwin
Research Station, and the search for a mate began
– so far without success. George was at one time
moved to Isabela’s Wolf Volcano, together with
two females. He was in high spirits and some
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‘coupling’ took place, but neither female produced
young. Edward Louis, a geneticist at the Henry
Doorley Zoo in Nebraska, continues to scan and
analyse tortoise DNA from all over the globe in
search of a match for George.
In the Santa Cruz highlands, we visited large
pit craters called ‘Los Gemelos’ and explored
lava tubes. We also watched giant tortoises
feeding on a private ranch. The tortoises love
eating the fallen fi gs. The ranch is also home to
vermillion fl ycatchers, large-billed fl ycatchers,
and Darwin fi nches.
On Espanola Island, we watched Christmas
iguanas, sea lions and blue-footed boobies
near a spectacular blowhole, while elsewhere
there are nesting areas of blue-footed boobies
and albatross.
The unique wildlife that has evolved on
these desert isles, together with their volcanic
grandeur and history, make the Galapagos one
of the globe’s last genuinely wild places. Go now
if you can, as it is, without doubt, one of life’s
greatest experiences. ¿
THE GALAPAGOS FILEABOUT THE FLEETThe Letty is one of three identical signature
motor yachts, including the Eric and Flamingo,
which travel together throughout the
Galapagos Islands. They are 83ft long by 24ft
wide and cruise at 10 knots. Double-balanced
keels give maximum stability and they are
ecologically designed for noise reduction
and fuel effi ciency. They cater for 20 guests,
with 10 crew, including two nature guides.
Each motor yacht carries highly sophisticated
navigation equipment.
HOW TO GET THEREFly with LAN or another carrier to Santiago,
Chile, then to Quito in Ecuador. You can fl y
via Los Angeles or Miami, but make sure to
check-in three hours early for your connecting
fl ights to Quito.
HOW TO BOOKContact the Galapagos Network
via: www.ecoventura.com; e-mail:
tel: (1 305) 262 6264 or (800) 633 7972;
fax: (1 305) 262 9609. Or contact Ecoventura,
tel: (5 934) 283 182 or (5 932) 321 034;
fax: (5932) 321 034.
HEALTH AND SAFETYMalaria is not a problem in the Galapagos
Islands if you are cruising, but if you are
venturing into the Amazon rainforests in
Ecuador, take anti-malarials. While staying in
Quito, always take a taxi back to your motel
if you’re out late at night. Currency is in US
dollars and withdrawals are can be made at
ATMs in Quito. There are excellent hotels to
stay in at Quito, such as the Mercure.
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