Adventuring to the Galápagos Islands

50 years is a big birthday.  
In a previous post, I wrote about climbing a 14,000 foot volcano to celebrate this achievement.  That was great!  

But I have a goal to do 50 new things in my 50th year, 
so I need to keep celebrating and 
pushing myself into unchartered waters.  

One morning, during my yoga practice, it hit me.  You see, as I finish up my routine, I often recite a blessing to start my day:

     To the north, where my roots and my family ground me to all who I am
     To the east, where the sun rises and kisses my skin, inspiring me for each new day
     To the south, whose warm and colorful cultures have embraced me in their loving arms
     To the west, whose mountains and oceans pull me toward adventure, 
         challenging me to grow and become all that I can be.

Keeping this last part in mind, I decided I should go west to explore the furthest western point in Ecuador...  the Galápagos Islands!  (On the map below, you can see my home city of Ibarra.  It's fairly near the Colombia border northeast of Quito.)

The Galápagos Islands are a chain of archipelagic islands lying 570 miles off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.  There are currently 13 main islands, 6 smaller islands and over 100 little islets. These islands are the tips of giant underwater volcanos that, as they move across one of Earth's geologic hotspots, are still growing today.  Over time, as plants and animals found their way to the barren volcanic landscape, a variety of ecosystems and habitats were formed.  These range from humid mountain forests and grasslands (highest point at 5,600 feet), down through the towering sea cliffs, the rocky shores at sea level, and the coral reefs spanning like skirts around each of the islands.  This range of habitats nurture over 9,000 plant and animal species, many found nowhere else in the world.  For this reason, the Galápagos Islands have become very famous.

Because the Galápagos Islands sat away from any natural explorer or trade routes, they weren't even discovered until the 1500's.  For the next two centuries, they served as a hideaway for the Dutch and English buccaneers and then the whalers of the 1800's.  It is known that all of these people exploited the rich animal resources, especially the slow and friendly giant tortoises.  Since tortoises can live for up to year without food or water, sailers figured out that they could turn the tortoises upside down and stack them on top of one another in the hold of their ship, ensuring a source of fresh meat along their journey for months to come.  One book I read stated that in the early 1800's, there were over 700 whaling ships in the Pacific and many of them called on the Galápagos for their food source.  1n 1835, Charles Darwin spent 5 weeks on these islands as a young 26 year-old naturalist from England.  He was mostly observing the birds and the plants and during his stay, he ate the tortoises too.  But while he was there, he took some very important notes, especially concerning some finches.  The puzzling thing to him was how the same species of birds had different shaped beaks on different islands.  He didn't put it all together until many years later when he used these notes from his Galápagos visit to publish his groundbreaking "Theory of Evolution".  His theory stated that the birds' beak shape had evolved to fit their different food sources in each of their individual habitats.  The different varieties of Darwin's Finches, as they are now known around the islands, are still prolific today.

By this point in history, Ecuador had claimed the Galápagos Island for their own and a few brave citizens started making their way there to live.  For many years, the islands were mostly inhabited by people who wanted to start utopian societies or penal colonies for the production of goods.  Nobody was really concerned about the environment until cruise ship companies started to take notice of the tourism opportunities.  Then, things really started to change.  Here is a short historical timeline:

1934: Tourists start arriving to the islands by cruise ships
1959: Galápagos National Park was established to protect the resources
1965: Baltra Airport, which was originally a US air base during World War II, opened to the public,  which made the islands more accessible by tourists
1978: UNESCO designated Galápagos Islands as a World Heritage Site
1986: The Galápagos Marine Reserve was added to the National Park to protect the surrounding waters
1998: 24-hour electricity came to the island
2000: Telephone and Internet connections came to the island, which enabled tourist companies to pre-book tours

Each year, about 250,000 tourists visit the Galápagos Islands with about 50,000 people residing
full-time on five of the the islands, in large part, to serve the tourist needs.


The Galápagos Islands are known for its wildlife and wild landscapes and are only recommended for those willing to adventure... perfectly suited for me!  And since I already live in Ecuador, a birthday trip was the perfect excuse to visit these infamous isles.  The majority of visitors experience the Galápagos Island aboard an expensive multi-day cruise, but after much research- and counting my pennies- I decided to stay on two islands and take day trips from there.


Santa Cruz Island

Santa Cruz is the most populated and cosmopolitan island.  Walking down the streets of Puerto Ayora, I dodged the employees of tourist agencies trying to sell me a tour, and waiters hustling for my business.  I overheard English commonly spoken with a variety of American, Canadian, British and Australian accents.  I also heard Spanish and a variety of European languages.  I met one group of sailers who had sailed their boat from the Mediterranean, to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and were stopping over in the Galápagos on their way back to Australia.  Seriously, after living in the quiet mountains of Ecuador, this was all a little overwhelming.

So, if you didn't know, when you're a backpacker and trying to travel cheap, a common option is to stay in a dormitory type room with other single travelers.  Here, I met a wonderful new friend from Easter Island, Chile and another from Australia.

The first stop on my self-guided tour, was the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galápagos National Park Visitor Center.  Here, I learned about the great variety of research and conservation programs they are managing in order to protect the plants and animals on the land and in the water.

This research center is most famous for its successful Giant Tortoise breeding program.  In an effort to get the tortoise population back to historic levels, they raise baby tortoises for five years before introducing them into the wilds of the other islands.  So far, they have successfully introduced over 7,000 tortoises back to the wild with the goal of introducing a total of 50,000 tortoises before 2050.

After this, I took a tour up into the hills to a Tortoise Reserve and got to see many more incredible tortoises in the wild.  They are herbivores, so they spend their day slowly moving around and chomping on grass.  These animals can live over 100 years and the general rule of thumb is the bigger the tortoise, the older it is.  I saw some very big tortoises.  They were amazing!

Next, I headed to the beach and along my walk, I learned about the Opuntia, or Prickly Pear Cactus, that is endemic to the Galápagos.  This cactus is a very important food source on the island, especially for the tortoises that have evolved a notch in their shell.  This notch allows 

their neck to reach up higher and eat the paddles of these cactuses.

At the shoreline, the white-sand beaches are beautiful but its the mangrove trees and the lava rocks that provide important habitat for all kinds of shoreline species such as young fish, baby sharks, 

young sea lions, and land iguanas.  

For my final day on this island, I took a snorkling cruise to see the Galápagos of the deep.  My ship mates included people from Ecuador, Peru, Switzerland, and Korea.

In this little bay, we swam with schools of fish, sleeping sea lions, and several very large sharks -don't worry, they are not aggressive here in the Galápagos!     

We also sailed past several colonies of birds nesting on the cliffs.  There!  Do you see it?
People come from around the world to spot a Blue-Footed Booby. 

The city of Puerto Ayora and Santa Cruz Island were great to visit. 

I especially loved watching the sea lions hanging around the fish market and the public dock. 

I also enjoyed shrimp ceviche... every day.  This is what I save my pennies for.  Served here with patacónes, or fried green bananas.

My adventures continue in the next post, Galápagos Part 2... but first, here is a video of a giant tortoise walking through the grassland.  It gives a whole new meaning to the story of The Tortoise and the Hare.  If you can't see it, go to onthewingadventures.blogspot.com

Galápagos Part 2, The Rest of the Story

San Cristóbal Island

The second island I visited on my Galápagos adventure was San Cristóbal, a two-hour ferry ride from Santa Cruz, but a world away from the hustle of the tourists.  This island had a real community of Galápagos citizens who are trying to find a balance between maintaining their quality of life, protecting the islands and serving the tourists.  I really enjoyed the relaxation of this island and the variety of free accessible activities.

The ferry between the islands, and a sea lion snoozing in the city sign. 

I also loved all the sea lions hanging out everywhere... on the rocks, on the docks, 

on the walkways, and of course, on the beach. 

In the evenings, the sea lions come ashore and take over the beach.  

I've included a video at the end of this post to help you get the full effect of their community.

On my first day, I took a long hike along the shoreline... 

A Lava Lizard

...and watched a dozen sea turtles feeding in these massive breakers.

A Land Iguana

A Brown Pelican

This was my favorite cove for snorkling.  I spent many hours here on two different days 

swimming with the playful sea lions and the graceful sea turtles.

The Islands have some interesting shells, too!

Then, as a lover of the water, I took another snorkling and seabird tour.  This time, my tour mates included people from Ecuador, El Salvador, Israel, Canada and the United States.  

Lots of nesting birds on these shoreline cliffs. 

If you look closely, you'll see the red puffed-up breast of the male frigate bird,
attempting to attract a mate. 

This is called Sleeping Lion Rock.  Surprisingly, the ocean water was a little chilly, so we donned wet suits to snorkel around its base and peer into the beautiful blue depths.  I've never been in water so deep, it was exhilarating! 

Since I don't have a fancy underwater camera, the following photos are courtesy of my National Park Service Guide Lenin Andrade Endara.  Here is a look into the underwater world of the Galápagos.  

My most favorite memory is swimming with the sea turtles!

The sea lions love to rush at you, or surprise you from behind.  They are so playful!

The Galápagos Islands, by land and sea, were a great birthday vacation.

But each night when I was enjoying my ceviche beach-side with a glass of wine or an icy limonada, I spent a lot of time thinking about this fragile ecosystem, and all the impact that tourists are making -that I was making - on these islands.  (You didn't really think this post was just going to be pretty vacation photos, did you?)  A visitor center display helped me understand the bigger picture of what really is going on out there, so here's a summary for you: 

The Problem with Tourism:

250,000 people visit the Galápagos each year and they all need water, electricity and food sources.  They need hotels, restaurants, stores, tourist agencies, boats, taxis, and airports.  Then, they need all the people who build and work in those places.  And so more infrastructure is needed such as roads, Internet, hospitals, as well as a place to put all the garbage created.  People from main-land Ecuador move to the Galápagos everyday for good paying jobs working for the tourists.  And ofcourse, their ecological footprint and their pollution impacts the wildlife and destroys the very habitats that the tourists are coming to see.  But tourism brings $150 million to the Ecuadorian economy each year.  Obviously, the Ecuadorian government is not going to turn away from that.  

Solution: The Galápagos National Park is trying to find a balance between the number of visitors, and an amount of reasonable impact, while protecting the majority of the environment.  Currently 97% of the islands remain wild for the wildlife, which keeps the tourists coming in the first place.  But at the most popular wildlife destinations, the Park Service has set a maximum persons limit to minimize the number of people in the same place at the same time.  They also require that guides accompany all tourists.  A steep entrance fee has also been enacted with the money going towards the efforts of the National Park.

The Problem with Water:

People live on five of the islands, but there are only two islands with natural water sources.  The other three islands must import all of their fresh water by ship.  Can you imagine how expensive this is? Tourists buy and carry water in bottles which creates more plastic, and more garbage on the islands.

Solution: Inhabited communities are trying to rely more on rainwater, which isn't sustainable as the climate is changing and the islands are susceptible to drought.  In the meantime, there's posters everywhere reminding tourists that "every drop counts".

The Problem with Energy:

All the people on the islands need energy for electricity and fuel for boats and cars.  Currently, since Ecuador has a vast supply of petroleum in the Amazon, they ship in a tanker of petroleum a day.  But in 2001, there was a giant oil spill which ofcourse killed a lot of animals and destroyed a lot of habitat.  The Ecuadorian government knows that it's only a matter of time before this happens again.  

Solution: The government has set a goal to convert the Islands completely to alternative energy sources by 2020.  It's not going to happen.  It's 2019, and although they do have some alternatives in place, they're still not close to reaching their goal.  More wind farms hurt birds, more solar panels take up too much land and can impact the wildlife.  They don't yet seem to have any other ideas. 

The Problem with Food:

The locals and the tourists need food to eat.  The local farmers can’t keep up with demand on the amount of rocky land they have currently zoned for agriculture.  But if they expand their farms, it will destroy wild habitats.  The local fishing fleet can’t keep up with the demand and stay within the harvest limits of the marine park.  

Solution: Currently, 1,100 crates of food and beverages are shipped into the islands daily to feed the population.  And if they continue to grow, the will need more in the future.  So, there's a movement among the locals to try to find a balance between intensely growing organic foods and protecting the environment.  Either way, food is very expensive on the Galápagos Islands. 

So there it is.  The Galápagos Islands are an incredibly beautiful and unique place.  I'm really glad I was able to go and learn more about its ecological importance in the world.  I know that the Ecuadorian Government, and the Galápagos National Park along with World Wildlife Fund, UNESCO and a zillion other smaller non-profits and local initiatives are trying to find a way to balance the amazing opportunity of experiencing this place, while protecting what the tourists are coming to see.  There are signs reporting on these efforts in the airports, and at the visitor centers.  Unfortunately, I know that most people don't read signs.  I have no idea what cruise ship visitors are taught, but on my two scuba trips, neither of our guides briefed us on the fragileness of this place or how we could do our part to protect it.  So, we jumped in the water with all of our toxic suntan lotions.  I watched divers standing on reefs, and way too many people crowding and trying to touch the animals.  Watch the video below and you'll see how close my guide swam to the animals, too.  I thought this was sad.  The type of tourists who can pay for a vacation on the Galápagos Islands are the very same people who have the means to reduce their impact and care for the environment - on the islands, and back home.  Somehow, I think, if we want this magical place to remain magical, the tourists need to be engaged to do their part in protecting and preserving the Galápagos Islands for the future.

Here are a couple of videos for you to enjoy - swimming with sea turtles, 

and the not so quiet nightly gathering of the sea lions on the beach.  

If you can't see them, go to onthewingadventures.blogspot.com