National Geographic channels in TV are responsible for my motivation, it was in my bucket list when I was in my twenties and always wondered about blue footed boobies, flightless cormorants and other unique species in those islands. But I had no idea how to go there in those days, there were no Internet, Google etc. I’m glad that towards the end of my service life, I was finally able to visit the islands in a real adventurous way with my wife. We were on a small boat with only seven families (14 people) hopping from island to island at night and spend the day time in the islands.
The Galápagos Islands are a chain of islands, or archipelago, in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The Galápagos lie about 966 kilometers (600 miles) off of the Ecuadorian coast. There are thirteen major islands and a handful of smaller islands that make up the Galápagos archipelago. The largest of the islands is called Isabela.
The islands were discovered in 1535, but were vacant of humans until the 1800s due to their inhospitable terrain. After the discovery these Pacific Islands served as a hideout and sanctuary for buccaneers, whalers, and sailors of the 17th and 18th centuries. When they were annexed by Ecuador in 1832, the islands were given their current Spanish names, and pioneers began to develop small communities on the four currently inhabited islands. In the 1920s, European and North American settlers began to arrive, as well as Ecuadorians who came to fish and farm. Beginning in the 1960s, tourism and new fisheries brought more settlers. Along with these new economic activities, more and more people migrated to the islands. The Galápagos’ population has increased from roughly 3,000 in the 1960s to about 33,000 in 2020. Four of the islands are inhabited, with most people living on Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal, very few live in Isabela and Floreana, mostly for preservation and research work. The rest of the islands are in pristine condition with visitor sites carefully managed and maintained by the Galapagos National Park. In fact, the Galapagos Islands are so culturally and biologically diverse that they are on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites. The Galápagos are best known for their diverse array of plant and animal species. Environmental conditions make the Galápagos a unique island ecosystem. Though the Islands are located near the equator, yet they receive cool ocean currents. This makes for a strange mix of tropical and temperate climates. Many species are endemic, which means they are not found anywhere else in the world. These include the giant Galápagos tortoise, the marine iguana, the flightless cormorant, and the Galápagos penguin. The Galápagos penguin is the only penguin species to live in the Northern Hemisphere. Read more
When scientists found one male tortoise at the island of Pinta in 1971, they never thought it was the last of its species. A desperate search was carried out to find a female from the species but there was not a second tortoise in the island of Pinta. The island's vegetation had been devastated by feral goats and the number of tortoises has been reduced to a single individual. It was named as Lonesome George and for its safety, was relocated to the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz. Lonesome George died in 2012 from cardiac arrest and his taxidermy is now preserved at the Center.
When Spanish sailors arrived the islands first time, they found a funny looking bird which later named as the Booby species. In Spanish ‘Bobo’ means stupid as they found the birds can be easily caught for their meat. These birds are very unique in the sense that they are not found in other parts of the world and they develop very bright color in their feet. I developed an interest in the species for Blue Footed Booby, Nazca Booby and Red Footed Booby by reading their stories, behavior and unique feature. They are very slow on the ground, but extremely fast in the air and water. When I saw them flying, I realized nature created a perfect aerodynamic body for them, the long beak perfectly matches the otherwise robust body that generates minimum friction in the air. All the three species can be seen at North Seymore or Genovesa but Blue Footed Booby builds their nests on the ground whereas Nazca and Red Footed Boobies nest on the trees. Their hunting areas are also different. Blue Footed Boobies hunt within 100m from the coast, Nazca hunts within a boundary of 100m and 500m while Red Footed Boobies hunt beyond 500m from the coast. This is absolutely a natural wonder that motivated me to see these birds from close.
The other bird of my interest was Flightless Cormorants. We know Cormorants can be seen in different parts of the world however this one is very unique. Darwin in his theory of evolution mentioned about this species; over time they became so lazy due to abundance of fish and without any potential predator, their wings became so small they can’t fly anymore. They are now only found in Fernandina and at Moreno Point of Isabela Island.
For most of their history, the islands have been extremely isolated. This combination of factors created an intense attraction for the visit to the islands and enjoy the firsthand experience with the evolution of an unusual mix of plant and animal species.
We planned for the trip in March through a travel agency in Ecuador. The government currency of the country is US dollar, they can’t print the bills but purchase from USA. Tourism is a major industry in Ecuador with organized infrastructure.
The international airport at Quito is not a big airport, the immigration officer asked how much cash is with us, not sure what was the reason. We came out after baggage claim and took the hotel bus for Wyndham hotel; it was a five-minute drive.
Left the hotel at 6:30 am next day for the flight to Baltra. The rep from the travel agency handed us our flight tickets to Baltra and also went through the process of paperwork. We had to get transit card from Galápagos counter at $20 each, go through luggage security and check in process. We were done for everything in two hours, most of the time taken at the transit card line. Avianca flight to Baltra is well organized, crews are very friendly and understand our language barrier as locals don’t use English much. The flight landed Baltra at 12:16 pm via Guayaquil. Read more
At the airport we had to go through a rigorous checking of our luggage with sniffing dogs. We also paid $100 each at the entry counter of the airport which is collected for the preservation of the islands and its unique flora & fauna.
We met our guide Tonyo at the airport and he took us to the ship. The port is about five minutes’ walk from the airport. He gave us a briefing on board, had lunch with pasta and then went to North Seymour Island at 4pm. We were in the island for 1.5 hours and saw blue footed boobies, sea lions, frigate birds, some finches all around the island. Had 2km walk along the designated trail, took some nice pictures. Frigate birds are pirates snatching food from mom blue footed boobies while they feed their chicks.
After whole night of sailing, we arrived at Genovesa island around 7am. After breakfast we started our walking tour at the island. It was about 2km walk inside the island, a difficult walking stair is built on lava rock at El Barranco for people to get down from the boat and then climbing the island walking trail. The moment we reached the top numerous Nazca boobies, red footed boobies and other birds greeted us. We saw frigate birds, mocking birds, Darwin finches, red billed tropic birds, iguanas, owls and fur seals.
After a little rest we went to the beach on the other side of the island which is known as Darwin Bay, it’s the nesting ground for boobies, frigate birds, finches and also for herons. We went around the beach looking for birds raising their chicks. We saw few sea lions resting on the beach, they in fact don’t care about the visitors.
We traveled the night for Sullivan Bay which is formed by volcanic eruptions with very unique patterns. The lava flow was formed in the second half of the 19th century. As much of the barren, volcanic landscape of eastern Santiago, the trail at Sullivan Bay crosses relatively flat, black pahoehoe lava, dotted with a series of pyroclastic cones. Not many animals around the island but we saw blue footed boobies hunting from the sky, diving at a rocket speed inside the water. We hiked up the top of a small hill in the volcanic lava, got beautiful view of lava formation. Came back on the dingy for a ride around the coast, saw two penguins cleaning their body standing on the lava rock. This is the only penguin species found on the north of equator.
After lunch in the boat, traveled to Rabida Island. Here we saw flamingoes, total 14 in number; they are reduced due to lack of food, scientists are afraid flamingos will be extinct in near future from Galapagos.
Few of our co-passengers from our boat went for snorkeling on the shore of Rabida Island. A sea lion followed one of our members from the water and walked with her on the shore, it was so adorable. The ship will sail today for Santa Cruz with favorable wind, stay the night on the ship without any wavy movement.
Next day after breakfast we headed for Tortoise breeding center. On the way we went to see beautiful natural crater that is the nesting place for finches. They feed on wild raspberries grown in the crater.
At the center, Galápagos tortoises are bred in natural habitats, feeding elephant grass, guavas and other fruits. We saw tortoises of more than 100 years old, they are distinctly marked on the shells for years, till about 90 years old. Then the shell changes and a high growth of the shell appears close to the head. The actual age can only be determined with details of the body and not by the marks on the shell.
Went for Darwin research center in the afternoon, spent time watching the work done by Darwin and others. Next day it was a 14 hours cruise from port Ayorah to Moreno point at Isabella Island. We arrived in the morning around 7am, had breakfast and then left for a walk at the island. It is the result of an active volcano which last erupted in June 2022. Here we see flightless cormorants, their nests, penguins swimming, two flamingos swimming in a brackish water. We also saw shark, sea turtles swimming in the brackish sea. Marine iguanas swimming and resting on the rocks. We walked 2 km inside the island and 2 km back to the dingy. The vegetation is unique with different varieties of cactus, small bushes. Came back to dingy, others went for snorkeling but I got some pictures of flightless cormorants swimming and jumping to hunt. Read more
Now we start for Urbina Bay which is three hours of sailing. We reached at around 3:30, it’s a black sand beach, made of lava rocks. Waves are very high; it was very much challenging for the landing. Crews were expert, guided to disembark really fast.
The walking trail is 1.5km inside the island, we saw land iguanas, tortoises grazing on the natural habitat. Sea turtles make their nests around the bay. The volcano is right after the beach, tortoises travel from one volcanic rock to another within the island. There is total five volcanoes in the entire Isabela Island. Male tortoises live on the mountains where females live on the beaches.
Next day our first destination was Espinoza point of Fernandina Island. The sea was very rough, dark blackish brown beach. Here we saw large colonies of marine iguanas, sea lions and flightless cormorants. We had a trek around the marked trail of 1.5 km looking for marine iguanas resting, eating algae, their nests. A sea lion was seen roaming around the brackish water making sound to protect its family.
After lunch our boat sailed for Tagus cove. It’s a calm area, lot of brackish water, covered with land on three sides. I went for kayaking for about 10 minutes. Our guide Tonyo took me out on the boat for bird photo. I got pictures of penguins, flightless cormorants, pelicans’ nest with babies.
After a 30 minutes rest we went for hiking on the island. It was a hike of 2 km one way high on the mountain. There were stairs initially but then the trail was dusty. We saw Darwin Lake from above at three different locations. At around 7:40pm we crossed the equator when I took the screenshot of compass in my iPhone. People celebrated the moment with drinks. After crossing the equator we went to sleep but we had very rough sea at night, things broke at the common area due to up and down motion.
Next day we went to Egas port after breakfast. It’s a historical place where Jorge Egas had salt factory in 1930 to extract salt from sea water. We saw old structures and tanks built for the business. Ecuador government abandoned the business as the condition of the workers were not good. Darwin also visited the place in 1835 when he saw a group of Spanish people salting tortoise meat with the salt extracted from the area.
We saw wild animals like fur seal families, marine iguanas, sea lions and Galápagos hawks. The walking trail is about 1.5km covering the rocky beach and the vegetation. I got good pictures of the hawk at a closeup distance. Came back on the boat at 10:30, others went for snorkeling. After lunch the boat sailed for Buccaneer cove, reached at 2pm.
The magnificent rock formation from lava rock around the cove is something to watch. Boobies, gulls, fur seals made nests on the rocks. We saw Manta Rays jumping above the sea, glittering sun reflected on their body, an unforgettable view. Couldn’t take a picture, the jumps were so fast.
Our Galapagos trip can be followed in the map below:
Started from Baltra – Genovesa – Sullivan Bay – Rabida – Charles Darwin Station – Moreno Point – Urbina Bay – Espinoza Point – Tagus Cove – Egas Port – Buccaneer Cove – Mosquera Islet - Baltra
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