Leaving for the Galapagos Islands
involved the most elaborate, lengthy check in procedure involving queues,
inspection of luggage and the obtainment of visitor cards for entry into the
Galapagos Islands. However, by midday we were over the Pacific, 1 000km east of
the mainland, and preparing to land at Seymour Airport on Baltra Island, rather
amazed at how flat and dry it looked from the air. There we were met by Eddie (Spaghetti) our
escort as far as the Red Mangrove Lodge on the island of Santa Cruz.
The first thing we noticed on
Baltra Island was the foundations and floor slabs of numerous, abandoned
buildings. Later we learnt that during World War 2 thousands of US servicemen
and Ecuadorian personnel built and occupied an American air base on Baltra. A
combination of habitat destruction, predation by humans, dogs and cats, and
competition with feral goats, apparently led to the complete extinction of
Baltra’s land iguana population.
We crossed the Itabaca Channel between Baltra and Santa
Cruz on a ferry, before travelling in a Toyota double cab along a pot holed
road (gravel in places) to Puerto Ayora (population 17 000) which lay 42km
away. The transition in vegetation was dramatic – changing from the dry
lowlands, covered in grey (leafless) sandalwood trees to the epiphyte covered
Scalesia forests in the highlands. As we drew closer to Puerto Ayora more and
more signs of man-made disturbances became apparent - banana plantations, fields of maize, cassava,
paw paws, and citrus growing behind fences made from Erythrina (coral bean) cuttings all actively sprouting; livestock
in the form of cattle, poultry and dogs; scruffy looking shacks; and a
townscape bustling with cars and trucks. I make this point deliberately because
most people, like us, may have expected to find an environment lacking
intrusions of this nature.
Our room at the Red Mangrove
Lodge was beautifully positioned overlooking a wooden deck frequented by dozens
of small marine iguanas. Most of the benches and sunbeds available were
occupied by sea lions; some fast asleep, some dozing, others barking and
arguing with each other. Amongst the pitch black boulders on the mangrove lined
shoreline were bright red crabs (sally light foot crabs); frigate birds circled
overhead and tiny Darwin finches hopped around.
Pablo, our guide for the duration
of our Galapagos adventure was a 30 year old who had grown up fishing with his
uncle and gained a knowledge of all the islands. It wasn’t until the conflict
that inevitably arose between fishermen and the parks authorities that he became alerted
to the idea of conservation. This led him to a five year course on
ecology at the University of Santa Cruz and he became a guide. He lives his work, is a keen photographer, goes camping and diving in his free time and often helps researchers and film makers in the field.
Pablo took us to see Los Gemelos calderas, the remains of two
extinct volcanoes in the highlands and he was able to point out the alien
vegetation problems they are having to deal with – cedar trees (brought in for
timber production); vines in the form of passion fruit; and blackberries
smothering entire hillsides (the seeds of which are bird dispersed over the
entire archipelago) to name but a few of the 700 species of plants that have
been introduced to the area thus far.
We visited a privately owned tract
of land where a large number of naturally occurring giant tortoises still roam
freely moving at the beginning of each year down to the warmer / drier lowland
areas to lay their eggs, and then back again. If not attacked by beetles, ants, rats or pigs
(all introduced species), their eggs hatch after 5 months. We were taken to see
a muddy depression in which they lie – sometimes for several days in an attempt
to drown the ticks that cling to their bodies.
We stuck up a friendship with a
delightful Russian couple, George and Helena Margel (now American citizens
living in New York). George, in the business
of supplying limousines for rich and famous people and film stars; Lena, an
archivist in the library of performing arts.
A morning of kayaking and
snorkelling in the Itabaca channel meant George had to endure a lecture on how to
paddle and wear a life jacket as we slowly paddled along the edge of the
channel looking for white tipped reef sharks. Only a handful chose to snorkel-
George amongst them, taking his camera which he knew to be waterproof. Tragedy
stuck when it became flooded with seawater and ceased working! He was
speechless with horror … paralysed by the thought of not being able to take any
more photos at this crucial stage of the trip and having possibly lost
everything already on the SD picture card within. Consequently, it became a
long, somewhat miserable drive back to the lodge knowing he’d be reliant upon
Lea’s iPod as a camera and he could only buy a new one, once back on mainland
Ecuador.
After a quick lunch, we moved on
to Isabela Island, 4 640 km² in size and largest (and youngest) of all the
islands in the Galapagos, lying 50 km away. Together with another 36 passengers
we traveled across in a large boat powered by two 200 HP engines; plunging
through the waves, the hull slicing through them like butter, sending up large
sheets of spray in the process. On route,
several albatross and a large flock of Galapagos petrels were sighted. Two hours
of pounding across the ocean most people (Lena in particular) had had enough
and we were glad to reach harbour – itself full of interest … blue-footed
boobies sitting on the shore, pelicans roosting on boats and sting rays gliding
across its sandy shallows. Another Red Mangrove Lodge awaited us with a warming
hot chocolate to welcome us and a lovely room on the beachfront. While there
was still enough light we took a walk along the beach and as the sun set, the volcano
peak ahead of us appeared to be erupting, casting a beautiful red glow across the wet sand.
An early start with a hefty snack
pack each, we were driven up the slopes of Volcan
Sierra Negra, the second largest active volcano in the world (last erupted
October 2005). Surrounded by mist we disembarked at the ranger station and
began walking towards the rim which lay at an altitude of 1 200m asl.; the damp
air swirling around us and the vegetation on either side of the track little
else than guava trees (another introduced species) somewhat disguised by thick
growths of lichen and moss. Down slope, lay land used for cattle farming with large
tussocks of a grass that had been introduced as feed, and weeds including all
too familiar plants such as black jacks and thistles.
From the rim of Volcan Sierra
Negra, we had the most amazing view over the 10km wide caldera with its pitch
black lava strewn floor and in the south, spilling over the rim into the
crater, a mass of white clouds. To the east were long views over the slopes of
the volcano and the ocean. Lea was delighted to see two mockingbirds and spent
time trying to capture them on her iPod camera while Pablo provided an
interesting explanation of how the islands had formed and were grouped
according to their age. Isabela,the product of merging six large volcanoes
into a single seahorse shaped mass; is one of the youngest (approx. 2 million years
old). He explained how the archipelago of islands, rocks and islets known as
the Galapagos “float” on what is known as the Nazca plate, and are slowly
moving in a SE direction. It lies above a hotspot where the earth’s crust is
being melted from below by a mantle plume, the first islands forming about at
least 8 million years ago, and some of the older ones having long since
disappeared below the sea.
(Photos courtesy of Mario and Gabrielle Bondi)
Much to Pablo’s obvious dismay three
people within our group, George and an Italian couple, Mario and Gabrielle
Bondi, wished to walk further and see Volcan
Chico which lay 3-4 kms away and involved
crossing a rough, steeply descending lava field. It meant Pablo would have to
split the group and delay lunch on a farm for the three. Setting off at a fairly
brisk pace (after the slow amble up the volcano) it only took an hour before
the four of us were into a barren landscape very different to anything we’d
seen as yet. There, still hoping we’d be dissuaded from continuing Pablo made
one more attempt to suggest we turned back and re-join the group but, sensing
the indignation of the Italians who claimed this was what they had paid to come
and see, we pushed on. In surrounds completely devoid of vegetation (except for
the occasional cactus), masses of folded lava, collapsed lava tubes, holes and
pits from which hot gases (fumaroles) emerged, we finally arrived at a
point where we had the most stupendous view of the rest of Isabela Island.
Mario and Gabrielle triumphantly unrolled their Italian flag and had a photo
taken of themselves on the top of Volcan Chico - any one would have thought they
had just climbed Everest! To see them snapping away with their cameras, while
George had nothing, left him green with envy and so it only thanks to the Italians that he has any photos at all.
The the sun beating down and temperatures becoming unpleasantly hot they retraced their steps (George
found himself wishing he had never followed Pablo’s advice to wear long pants!).
Once back at the rim of Volcan Sierra we were enveloped in mist once more and
on the way down managed to obtain some excellent views of the rarely seen
vermillion flycatcher (the male brilliant red in colour, its mate yellow).
Despite the late hour we stopped
for our lunch at a very self-sufficient small farm where everything served up was home
grown and home cooked by a middle aged couple who do everything themselves. There,
we watched a video of the 2005 eruption of Volcan Sierra. Earlier, Lea had
enjoyed the fine lunch (popcorn served as the garnish to soup!) in the company
of George and Lena before the farmer took them to see the outside fire on which
he’d cooked the main meal and a small section of his very productive fruit and vegetable farm. For
unknown reason, a sudden sharp pain in Lea’s wrist prevented her from holding
anything not even a fork and she had to
keep it tightly bound up for the rest of our time in the Galapagos.
A cruise slowly around the
shoreline of the harbour at Puerto Villamil aboard a small dingy to observe blue footed boobies and Galapagos penguins
before reaching the marine iguana lava fields followed next day. The lava field
serves as the breeding ground for numerous marine iguanas. They lay no more
than 3 eggs and, as in the case of turtle hatchling, many of the newly hatched
iguanas are eaten by herons and crabs. We also found it interesting how the dry
(north facing) aspect of each bit of lava in the area was black, whilst the
moist (south facing) aspect was covered in lichen. The walk enabled us to get
some good close up views of these creatures as well as some white tipped reef
sharks (tintoreras) that rest up
during the day in a narrow channel (formerly a lava tube) filled with seawater.
Once back on the boat the two Georges prepared to go snorkelling with Pablo and
thoroughly enjoyed swimming amongst
turtles, stingrays, pufferfish, scores of damselfish, bright blue and chocolate
coloured starfish, coral and masses of sea urchins. They also saw a marine
iguana swimming.
We returned to the hotel for a
shower and a quick lunch, and by midday were on our way back to Santa Cruz on a
much calmer sea; this time on the Red Mangrove’s boat powered by two massive V8
Yamaha engines which delivered us directly to the Lodge’s little wharf as the tide
was right… That afternoon we strolled along to the Charles Darwin Research
Station a ten minute walk from our Lodge, to learn about the tortoise breeding
programme they run there. The saddleback tortoises frequenting the islands are cactus
feeders with much longer necks and legs (enabling them to reach up to a height
of 1.7m) than giant tortoises. Soil depths on each of the island’s beaches
determines the percentage of male and female tortoises that hatch due to the
critical influence of temperature. At 29⁰C the eggs hatch as females whereas at
28⁰C they hatch as males. We learnt that with only one old male left on the
island of Espanola the tortoise population declined to the point that they
eventually brought in a more virile, younger male from the San Diego zoo to
renew the gene pool.
There are so many things that one
learns on a trip like this it is almost mind boggling. For example we never
realised that the stems of cacti actually begin as leaves, gradually losing the
spines as they thicken and harden. Nor did we know about Darwin’s finches being
plagued by a bird pox carried by mosquitoes, or the introduced flies that lay
their eggs in finch nests to enable the hatching maggots to suck
the blood of the nestlings, eventually causing their demise.
As our Galapagos adventure drew
to a close we wandered into the village and enjoyed the antics of sea lions and
brown pelicans at fish market.
Thank goodness we hadn’t taken a more normal tourist cruise-based visit to the Galapagos and, we considered
ourselves lucky not to have been there during the busy season. Although we had
much enjoyed our trip and were sad it had come to an end we were a trifle disappointed
in our top “bucket listed” destination due to high expectations! Considering
the Galapagos sits on the equator, all our grey overcast days tended to take
the colour out of the landscape and given all the articles we have read about the
Galapagos and the documentaries seen on TV with stunning images of iguanas
slithering down the slopes of volcanoes into the craters below, Galapagos hawks
catching their young and manta rays offshore … perhaps it is all David
Attenborough’s fault! Regardless, one needs to spend far longer than 5 days in
a place such as the Galapagos.
One way or another we were
looking forward to a journey through the Andes, to buying a new camera and our
next adventure ….
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