The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Check one off of the bucket list: the Galapagos Islands. Our son Max had a long break between graduate school semesters, so we decided to take advantage of the time and book a trip with him to see Quito and the Galapagos Islands. Suffice it to say it was an EVOLUTION in our knowledge of this part of the world.

Of course, the bad joke is a reference to Charles Darwin who came to the islands in 1835 and observed how species of animals differed greatly between the islands which ultimately contributed to his understanding of the Theory of Evolution. He sailed on the Beagle for five years, but surprisingly only spent 5 weeks in the Galapagos!

When one conjures up images of the Galapagos, giant tortoises immediately come to mind. There was once 15 species of Tortoises on the islands, but now only 11 species survive on six islands (a seventh island, Floreana, has a reintroduction program underway). There are major breeding facilities on two of the islands we visited. Of course, one doesn’t encounter this topic without hearing the tale of Lonesome George, the last Pinta Giant tortoise who died in 2012. Unfortunately upon autopsy, it was observed that George was “shortchanged” in his “equipment” helping lead to the demise of his species.

However there are positive stories amongst the breeding facilities, which tend to have graphic logos to identify their function. “Diego” the giant tortoise fathered over 200 babies, helping his species recover. By the way, there are two major types of shells for these tortoises depending on the species: saddle and dome. Here are a few shots of the tortoises, read the captions for more information.

The other animal that is a major example of species differentiation between the islands are iguanas. The marine iguanas are most distinct, but there are also terrestrial iguanas including the Santa Fe Iguana and even a pink iguana. But the iguana that most stands out are the ones on Floreana Island, festooned in green and red scales, the Christmas Iguana was fitting to see during our visit over the holidays.

Another animal that comes to mind for the Galapagos are Blue-footed Boobies. Yes, they are real, and we have seen them!!! But did you know that penguins also are resident in the Galapagos? In fact, the only place on Earth where penguins can be found north of the equator is Isabela Island! Flamingos also frequent the lagoons on that island as well. During kayaking we saw dozens of medium-sized, white-tipped sharks mere feet under our boats in the shallows of Tortuga Bay.

We were able to visit three of the four inhabited islands: Santa Cruz, Floreana, and Isabela. We went on a land-based tour with G Adventures that afforded us a small group, plenty of physical activities (kayaking, snorkeling, and hiking) and all the inter-island transportation and boarding logistics which can be tricky with small communities. Technically we visited a fourth island, Balta, where the airport is located on an abandoned US Navy base.

The island inhabitants are friendly and welcoming; with little to no crime to speak of (we often walked to dinner and back at nights through the streets). Santa Cruz is the most developed and is unfortunately also where cruise ships land. The Darwin Scientific Research Station here is where one of the tortoise breeding stations is. However, on this island in the highlands is also the El Chato RanchReserve where free-roaming tortoises abound! On these grounds are also lava tubes to explore and giant tortoise shells to climb into. There is a fantastic chocolatier in town (tiny chocolate sea turtles in dozens of varieties) and a ceramic art garden tucked away on the same side of town.

Next, we visited the tiny island community of Floreana. The community has knitted together support for tourism by building small rooms to stay in and several restaurants as well as a beachfront bar. There are black, white, and green sand beaches on Floreana and good snorkeling off the beaches where we encountered inquisitive sea lions, playful sea turtles, gliding manta rays, spikey sea urchins and oodles of different multicolored fish species. Staying here was very much like going back in time, making us feel more like a part of the tiny community and its simple island ways.

We explored the tortoise reintroduction enclosure on the island as well as the labyrinth of dug-out caves once lived in by the first inhabitants of the island, a mutinied pirate captain and then later in the 20th century a nudist German doctor and his wife who was one of his MS patients. Near the caves they resided in there is also what appears to be a lava stone Easter Island Moai, but alas it only looks like one, but was instead carved by the bored nudist.

We left the island by doing a ritual of “mailing” a postcard. However, there is no post office on the island. Instead, there is a barrel to put postcards in. One “mails” your postcard by placing it in the barrel and then looks through the cards in the barrel, perhaps picking one that is near where you are travelling to and either mailing it from that country or hand delivering it. I hand delivered the postcard I selected to Lafayette, Colorado, but sadly nobody was home, so I left it in the door handle for them to ponder how it got there from Floreana!

Next, we boated over to Isabela Island. This community was mixed tourist and residential, but larger than Floreana. Here we hiked to one of the many volcanoes in the Galapagos, Sierra Negra. We were also lucky enough to spot a Vermilion Flycatcher courting two females on the way back down. This is where we saw penguins, another tortoise breeding center, and the flamingo lagoon. Since we were a month away from elections in Ecuador, the political parties where all doing parades through the streets and bonfire parties at night to hawk their candidates. One of the candidates for city council had their parade come right by our hotel. Vote Orange!

We finished our trip back at Santa Cruz, stocking up on chocolates and good memories for our trip back home. This was the most delightful way to see the Galapagos flora and fauna, its people and culture, and experience Darwin’s legacy up close. We highly recommend putting it on your bucket list! Coming soon a blog on our Quito adventures! Good night sea lion.