Galapagos Islands

Even before departing the South American mainland for the Galapagos Islands, an archipelago of volcanic islands straddling the equator off the Ecuadorian mainland, you get a sense that the location is just a tad different, a break from the norm. And by the norm I mean anything you’ve ever likely to have experienced before. Access to Darwin’s natural laboratory of evolution, famed for its unrivaled array of wondrous endemic birds, mammals, reptiles & plants, requires not only the purchase of a TCT (Tarjeta de Control de Transito Turista, a Traffic Control Card) but also the payment of a US$100 Parque Nacional Galapagos conservation fee. This outlay coupled with baggage screening to ensure you’re not carrying, inadvertently of otherwise, any alien pests & seeds hints that you’re about to embark on a trip to somewhere rather special. And rather special it is.

A Giant Tortoise feeding at Rancho Primicias on Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. July 17, 2015.

I spent 5+ days on Galapagos, independently visiting a few of the many islands to get a look at some of their unique inhabitants: I ogled at iconic, almost cartoonish like birds, the fabled giant tortoise, & demonic-looking iguanas; I cruised in calm waters to unique habitats & fought off seasickness bouncing between island settlements via small interisland water taxis; I explored & stumbled through pitch-dark, damp lava tubes; I walked & chased nimble crabs on picture-perfect beaches; and I trekked to volcanic craters & through wonderful volcanic topography. It was quite the ride. What follows is a day-by-day recap of my visit.

Read the entries as posted in chronological order or click here to jump directly to specific areas of the entry.

Day 1 – Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz (The Giant Tortoise & The Marine Iguana)

Day 2 – Isla Santa Cruz (Galapagos Diversity & Protection)

Day 3 – Isla Seymour Norte (The Blue-Footed Boobie, The Land Iguana, The Galapagos Sea Lion, & the Sally Lightfoot Crab)

Day 4 – Isla Isabela (Charles Darwin & His Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection)

Day 5 – Isla Isabela (Sierra Negra & Volcan Chico)

– Ecuador Ministry of Tourism

The Giant Tortoise
The hoary Giant Tortoise, the emblems of Galapagos and the origin of the archipelagos name, spread out, helped by marine currents, from the youngest of the islands to the east of the Galapagos archipelago, Isla Espanola & Isla San Cristobal, and today are found on 4 more of the Galapagos islands (6 total) – Isla Isabela, Isla Santiago, Isla Pinzon & Isla Santa Cruz. Weighting up to 250 kilograms they are, not surprisingly, the world’s largest tortoises. Needless to say, they have evolved well (Galapagos = evolution) to the varying environments of the different islands they inhabit; dome-shaped tortoises with shorter necks live on larger islands with dense & ground-level vegetation whereas saddleback tortoises with longer necks, like the tortoise seen in the above picture, inhabit lower islands with less vegetation, their longer neck allowing them to feed from higher bushes & cactus. While there were once 14 subspecies and estimates of more than 250,000 tortoises roaming the islands, today tortoise populations have declined by more than 90% because of invasive species, habitat loss, & overexploitation, especially during the whaling era of the nineteenth century when three subspecies became extinct – the death of Lonesome George in 2014 means there are now 10 remaining known subspecies of giant tortoise. All Galapagos tortoises are particularly vulnerable to extinction for many reasons – their population are relatively small, they are isolated, they are less genetically variable, & also because they lack natural defenses against introduced predators & competitors. Now fully protected, threats to present-day giant tortoises are thankfully few, meaning they can happily live for well over 100 years making them one of the longest-lived vertebrates. It seems nothing rushes the deliberate, lumbering giant tortoise.

Marine Iguana
Endemic of the Galapagos and found all over the islands, the demonic-looking Marine Iguana are unique among modern lizards in having the ability to forage in the sea. They feed on seaweed and algae, can dive for up to 12 metres and have the ability to stay submerged for up to an hour. Lethargic and somewhat difficult to see set against jet-black lava rocks, they are also dead silent except for when they sneeze excess salt from their front nostrils, an ability they developed as they evolved to marine life on Galapagos. A unique marine reptile it may be but still a reptile nonetheless – being cold-blooded means, & like all reptiles, it needs to recover energy by basking motionless in the sun for long periods of time, something that makes them rather easy to photograph. Just don’t get too close. You might scare them off or, even worse, get a spray of salt for your troubles.

Galapagos || Diversity & Protection
Mainly because of its location & geographical isolation, the Galapagos archipelago is one of the most complex, diverse & unique oceanic archipelagos in the world. From giant tortoises to tiny finches and from cold-water penguins to tropical coral, the Galapagos archipelago boasts an extraordinary range of distinctive habitats, vegetative zones and plant and animal species. There exists 7,214 identified species in the Galapagos, over 30% of which are endemic/native to the islands. Researchers flock to this isolated archipelago because of its ecosystem simplicity and few extinctions of unique species found nowhere else on earth. This makes Galapagos one of the best places to study evolution as an ongoing process in a natural environment. A truly unique environment, not only is 97% of Galapagos terra firma protected in the form of the Parque Nacional Galapagos (established in 1959) but 133,000 km² of ocean is also protected as part of the Reserva Marina de Galapagos (established in 1986). UNESCO have done their bit too, as both the terrestrial and marine areas of Galapagos have been granted World Heritage status – Parque Nacional Galapagos was inscribed on the list in 1978, one of the first locations to be awarded protective UNESCO status.

– UNESCO commenting on Galápagos Islands

Blue-Footed Boobie
I’m not much of a fan of warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates but I do love boobies (who doesn’t?). The small tropical gannet, with its distinctively bright feet (they come in blue & red varieties), the booby is the darling of all Galapagos birds – ‘I Love Boobies’ t-shirts are one of the must-have Galapagos souvenirs. Instantly likable not only because of their coloured feet but also because of their somewhat comedic waddle & their wonderful courtship display of sky-pointing & high-stepping to show off the blueness of their feet, their name is thought to come from the Spanish word bobo, meaning ‘fool’, a reference to their relaxed attitude to being caught – like all Galapagos fauna, the boobies have no fear of humans having evolved in an environment free of predators. The female can lay up to three eggs, although two is more common, which she incubates with her feet. If food is scarce, the first-born hatching will, and as seems to have happened in the above picture, tuck into its less fortunate sibling to ensure at least one survives.

Land Iguana
Galapagos is home to three endemic species of land iguana which exist nowhere else on earth, one of which, a remarkable pink iguana, was only discovered high on the remote summit of a volcano on Isla Isabela (see below) as recently as 2009. Larger than marine iguanas, land iguanas are among the largest iguanas in the world – adult males can grow to over half a metre in length and can weigh over 13 kilograms. Although primarily herbivores feeding on cactus pads & fruits, they are opportunistic feeders and will try anything at least once. They live on average for 40+ years, sometimes hitting 60 years of age, but are extremely vulnerable to human activity and any natural predators, competitors or loss of habitat can rapidly cause their extinction. Animals introduced by early visitors and colonists pushed some land iguana populations to the brink of extinction. Scientists estimate that tens of thousands of land iguanas once roamed Santa Cruz island alone; by 1976 fewer than 100 remained. Extinct on Isla Santiago, they were almost finished off on Isla Baltra as a result of airstrip-related World War II activity, though fortunately some had been moved here to Isla Seymour Norte previous to this and have since been reintroduced to their home island. It is estimated that of the about 600 land iguanas found on Isla Seymour Norte, two-thirds of them have been repatriated with the rest having hatched naturally.

One of the few attractions in Puerto Villamil itself is a bust of the island’s most famous visitor, Charles Darwin, located in the centre of the town lining its main drag Av. Antiono Gil.

A bust of Charles Darwin on display in the centre of Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela, Galapagos, Ecuador. July 20, 2015.

Charles Darwin & His Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
It was the Galapagos Islands that spurred English naturalist and geologist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) to formulate his ground-breaking theory of evolution by natural selection. It’s no stretch to claim that it was a discovery that had the effect of catapulting science – and the world – into the modern era. Darwin arrived at the Galapagos in September 1835 aboard the HMS Beagle as part of a wider expedition to chart the coasts of the South America continent. Darwin didn’t like the lay of the Galapagos land – “Nothing could be less inviting” he wrote – but nonetheless he spent 5 weeks collecting samples & observing the islands’ creatures; he was especially taken aback by their “tameness”, the result of them evolving in a predator-free environment. Observations made by Darwin on Galapagos, especially with regard to the island’s mockingbirds & finches, a.k.a. Darwin Finches, both unique to Galapagos, led him to speculate that the variant forms in each group had developed on the islands in different ways from an original species, what we now except as evolution by natural selection: those organisms best adapted to the environment in which they live will survive and reproduce. Darwin sat on his postulations for many, many years, somewhat afraid of the reaction they would receive. He eventually published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his groundbreaking 1859 book On the Origin of Species. By 1870 the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact, just as we do today.

– Charles Darwin commenting on the Galapagos Islands in 1845

Galapagos || Location & Formation
The Galapagos Islands are located on the equatorial line of the Pacific Ocean, 960 kilometres to the west of Continental Ecuador. The island’s 8,000 km² volcanic landmass consists of over 100 islets & rocks, 6 smaller islands & 13 major islands, only 5 of which – Isla Baltra, Isla Floreana, Isla Isabela, Isla San Cristobal and Isla Santa Cruz – are inhabited. The archipelago was formed from a volcanic hotspot located, at present, under the island of Ferandina at the extreme west of the archipelago. Sitting atop the Nazca Tectonic Plate, the islands are moving slowly but steadily to the east at a rate of 64 millimeters a year, meaning the islands to the east, closer to the Ecuadorian mainland, are the oldest, flattest & most eroded islands in the archipelago whereas the islands to the west, furthest from the mainland, are the higher, younger islands boasting active volcanoes. While the older islands have disappeared below the sea as they moved away from the mantle plume, the youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption in April 2009. Each island, which has a different set of unique species due to both isolation & variations in island age & topography, may exist for several million years before finally submerging beneath the sea.