Categories
Uncategorized

The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

A giant dome shell tortoise at El Chato Ranch Reserve.

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.

A statue of Charles Darwin can be found on the way to the Charles Darwin Research Center. His likeness is prominent throughout the town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. Nearby is a fantastic chocolatier and the ceramic garden.

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!

One of the first giant tortoise sightings we saw at the El Chato Ranch Reserve were these two large males fighting over a female tortoise. The fellow on the left was hot and heavy into it when the fellow on the right marched across a field and under a barbed wire fence to ward him off. MY WOMAN!!!

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.

Max and Suzie enjoying their first sighting of giant tortoises
This is the taxidermy of Lonesome George who now resides in a climate-controlled air-conditioned room.
Max doing his best impression of giant tortoise at El Chato Ranch Reserve. This is a Domed Tortoise shell.

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 Tortoise Center logo at Isabela Island leaves nothing to the imagination on what the function of the center is! Are they smirking at the camera?
Tortoise hatchlings at the tortoise breeding center. They aren’t numbered for racing; they are numbered for tracking purposes.
Yearlings at the giant tortoise breeding center
A giant tortoise “racing” to get some food. When they want to get up and move, they can move relatively fast!
Suzie with giant tortoises at El Chato Ranch Reserve
When the giant tortoises sleep, they stretch their necks out on the ground with shells resting on the ground as well, feet splayed out.
The under shell of the giant tortoise actually has backbone-like connections into the tortoise. This is a saddle shell.
I call this guy Smiley; I think he’s looking for love!
One of the walk-though lava tubes at El Chato Reserve
Taking a dip to cool off.
The prickly pear in the Galapagos are giant trees, not low to the ground like in Colorado.
Thirsty tortoises.

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.

The colorful Christmas Iguana on Floreana Island.
A marine iguana going for a stroll on the beach at Tortuga Bay on Santa Cruz Island. Many would opt to swim only the shoreline instead.
This is a Santa Cruz marine iguana. Notice the blunt nose, easier for digging crustaceans out of rocky beds underwater.
An iguana on Isabela Island, up close and personal, shades of Godzilla!
One last look at the Christmas Iguana, colorful, aren’t they?

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.

The famous Blue-footed Booby. I was so enamored with their enigmatic look that I had to search and find my own Booby shirt to wear. My crass son, Max, decided he just wanted a shirt that said, “I like Boobies”.
Flamingos can be found in the lagoons of Isabela Island
Penguins off the coastline of Isabela

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.

We couldn’t resist getting a shot of Santa’s sleigh at Puerto Ayora, pulled by dolphin and seahorses!

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.

The fantastic sea serpent entrance to the ceramic garden
A ceramic chair, functional for sitting in the garden.
Most of the animals you see in this mosaic we actually saw on the islands as well.
This free-standing ceramic cityscape was fun to look at from all angles.
A scene depicting erupting volcanoes on the islands.
A ceramic mosaic of a mermaid

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.

This red carpet weed on Floreana made such a dramatic image with the white beach sand pathways that I had to take a picture of it.
A view from our deck of our room at Floreana Island showing the quaint little community below.
Sunset from the beach bar at Floreana Island. No, alas, we didn’t see the green flash!

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.

Suzie with a couple giant tortoises in the reintroduction enclosure at Floreana Island
One of the reintroduced saddle shell giant tortoises at Floreana
The false Moai statue in the Labyrinth on Floreana Island

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!

In the southern part of Isabela Island is the Sierra Negra volcano caldera which is 9×7 km across. It last erupted in 2018.
We were lucky to capture a Vermilion Flycatcher flitting about cavorting with two females on the way back down from Sierra Negra.
Political campaign parade for the Democratic Left party candidate for city council
A giant tortoise at the breeding center on Isabela Island

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.

The sea lions on the pier at Puerto Ayora make free use of the benches to stretch out and take a nap.

4 replies on “The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador”

Quite surprising that a “canned” tour had some many “action” excursions. Looks like fun was had by all.

Thats the ONLY way we would join a tour is if it were active! In this case the logistics of planning transportation and boarding between the islands is also very challenging, so worth booking with a tour group!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.