Galapagos Islands, Ecuador February 15-25, 1979
The Galapagos Islands are a set of volcanoes, over 700 miles west of the coast of Ecuador. It took us (me and about 50 other tourists) three days to get there by boat (an older vessel with a very loud engine). The islands are somewhat protected, although it’s pretty clear that the increasing numbers of tourists – and residents – are having an impact on the environment and the many unique species of flora and fauna that are found there. Most visitors come with guides, who try to ensure that they stay on the well-marked (with stones and little wooden stakes) paths, and that they do nothing to harm or disturb the wildlife. No picking flowers, no patting seals, no feeding the animals and no leaving anything behind – except footprints. Our tour operator organized us into small groups of 10-12, each group going ashore for a couple of hours while the rest of us stayed on the boat and heard talks or watched movies about the Galapagos, or went swimming or snorkeling, or had a meal or just enjoyed some free time.
We visited the following islands, in this order: Espanola (also called Hood), Santa Cruz, South Plaza, Bartolome, San Salvador (also called Santiago, or James), Isabella, Fernandina (also called Marlborough), and North Seymour.
We motored slowly from one island to another, sometimes at night, but often, for short hops, during the day. We were often followed by frigates – called ‘tijeretas’or ‘scissor-tails’ because of their long forked tails. They’d glide and dip in our wake, hoping our cooks would throw them some scraps. They are amazing fliers, and would catch these scraps mid-air. Pelicans and masked boobies would also tag along, and managed to get scraps as well, but they weren’t as agile or quick as the frigates. We saw dolphins several times, leaping and bounding alongside the boat, or cavorting in its wake. They are such sheerly exuberant animals they were exhilarating and uplifting just to watch. Less frequently we sighted both sharks and whales. One evening a dozen or more manta rays – ghostly white kite-shaped apparitions – floated eerily towards us in a loose linear formation, grouped and re-grouped into other roughly geometric formations, then slowly disappeared.
We also went snorkeling several times. As I was the youngest woman in the group – and single – our captain used his authority to proclaim that he would personally accompany me. Although at first thought him a bother, I was glad of his presence when I saw several large black manta rays below us, with their long whip-like tails. Perhaps it was just their colour, but I felt them menacing. The captain was happy to put a reassuring hand on my shoulder... . There aren’t many coral reefs in the Galapagos, but we did go to one off Santa Cruz Island where there was a good variety of colourful corals, and lots of tropical fish.
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Our first stop was at Espanola (Hood) Island, one of the smallest islands in the chain, and one of the first you come across when arriving by boat. Several of us went ashore in small boats, landing in a sandy cove where a group of sea-lion pups lay sun-bathing while their parents were out fishing. They were furry, cute, and inquisitive little creatures; one got the impression that they would welcome a pat, but it’s strictly forbidden (and rightly so). One big matriarch was babysitting the lot; she looked a little more fearsome, not like she would welcome a pat at all. We walked inland on the carefully marked trails (with frequent “do not go off the trails!” signs) over rough black lava rocks and a pretty little low ground cover with bright yellow flowers. The trail wound through nesting boobies, both masked and blue-footed, who sat, unperturbed as we passed within inches. The booby chicks were quite big, with soft looking white down and big booby feet. They peered at us curiously, pointing their long beaks at us as they swiveled their heads to follow our progress. We were lucky to catch one pair engaged in a mating ritual – a high-stepping dance, with wings spread, as well as necking and billing and calling. Fascinating to watch. It was so incredible to be this close to these amazing, weird and wonderful birds – story-book birds – with their big blue feet. Such startlingly blue, blue feet!
On the other side of the island, we stood on the high lava cliffs watching the boobies dive, like bullets, into the water. The boobies soar quite high in the air, surveying the water until they see a fish, then in an instant they fold their wings and make themselves into straight-arrow-shapes, hitting the water at incredible speed. Given the speed, I imagine they must go fairly deep, but it’s just seconds before they come up, sometimes empty-beaked, but more often with a lucky – or unlucky, depending on your point of view – fish. A remarkable feat.
There were a fair number of great big black frigate birds here as well. They are real scavengers, well known as ladrones (thieves) and ‘man-o-wars’ of the sea, for the way in which they steal fish from other birds – especially boobies and pelicans. In that was they remind me of crows, but they are so much larger, with a wingspan of 1.5-2 meters, and long, forked tails that make them look even bigger. They are extremely agile, acrobatic fliers, and can steal a fish from a booby in mid-flight, or catch a thrown fish in mid-air. Despite their admittedly anti-social behaviour, I had to admire their skill, and grace.
Back down along the beach we saw red-billed oyster-catchers, standing on the black rocks not far from shore, well camouflaged apart from their red beaks. There were also quite a few grey-black marine iguanas, also lying camouflaged in the grey-black rocks. As they lay there sunning and warming themselves they scrutinized us with their lazy hooded eyes and silent smiling lips. Every once in a while they spit out, through a hole between their eyes, the excess salt in their bodies. The first time I saw one do that it caught me by surprise. I thought it might be a precursor to some form of aggression, or hunting. But it turns out that when they eat algae, they ingest more salt than they can use, so they have to rid themselves of the salt. Many of their heads are almost completely covered in white salt encrustations.
Walking back to the beach where we landed we heard and saw the famous Darwin’s finch. Darwin’s finches have distinctive songs or dialects, which differ from island to island. But even more interesting is their beaks, which also differ from island to island, depending on what kind of food they are eating – longer, thinner beaks for sipping nectar from cacti and shorter, stronger, blunter beaks for pecking seeds from the ground.
For more information on the evolution of Darwin’s finches and their beaks go to:
In the afternoon we cruised to Gardener Bay, on the northern side of the island, where we were surprised to find a long stretch of very white – and very beautiful – sand. A group of us swam in the warm, turquoise waters and did a little snorkeling. There was a bit of a coral reef there where we spyed fantastic neon-blue fishes with pink edges (neon gobies?); orange, white and black striped clown fishes; and schools of grey-pink, grey-green and grey-blue fishes of all shapes and sizes. We also saw a large, very black manta-ray, cruising along the bottom with a slow, sensual, undulating wave of its body. Spooky.
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The next day we went to Santa Cruz Island, landing at Academy Bay, and then walking to the Darwin research station to see the giant tortoises, as well as hundreds of smaller tortoises that are being raised there. The legendary giant tortoises are quite amazing – big enough that a small person could ride on one’s back. Great, slow, lumbering creatures that seemed content to sit in the sun and pose for photographs. Unfortunately the station itself was dirty and uninspiring; the staff didn’t seem very interested in talking about what they were doing. Indeed it seemed that there was little research going on there which is a pity, given the richness of the islands and the research that could be done. Perhaps it’s a question of financing.
A big, but not the biggest, Galapagos tortoise.
That afternoon we went to South Plaza Island, a more desolate, rocky island, with little vegetation except the tall lava cacti (which grow tall to avoid being eaten by iguanas) and sparse patches of ground cover.
Back down in the bay a small herd Galapagos sea lions were swimming – again mostly youngsters, with one big male playing nanny. At one point he chased after a younger male who was threatening to intrude; the two of them came right up onto the beach, moving with surprising speed as they waddle-ran after one another. A fight was avoided when the younger male decided to accede to the elder’s dominance.
In a quieter area, a little away from the beach, a mama sea lion was nursing her baby.
For more information on the Galapagos sea lion go to: https://galapagosconservation.org.uk/wildlife/galapagos-sea-lion/
And in a lucky sighting, just before returning to the boat, looking through some branches, I spied a pair albatrosses! They’re a lonely bird and quite ungainly.
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We cruised that night and awoke at Bartolome Island, which is a relatively recent lava formation. There is almost no vegetation on the island – just a few clumps of tiny-leafed, white-flowered ground cover. But the lava is quite colourful, with lots of patches of grey, brown-orange, green and purple lichen.
We climbed to the top of a little hill and looked out across the water to San Salvador Island, where a very large, recent lava flow (about 100 years old) has descended down the cone of the volcano to the ocean’s edge, where part of it is actually floating. San Salvador looks very rough, very black and very dead – there is almost no vegetation at all.
In the afternoon we cruised into James Bay, on San Salvador Island (also known as Santiago or James Island). Our small boats ferried us to the very black sand beach, right near what used to be a salt mine. In fact the mine was active right up until the late 1960’s. We walked up and across the headland, through some low bushes and some quite pretty trees to another lava-formed ‘beach’. There were two kinds of lava here: ‘pa-hoi-hoi’ lava, which is fairly smooth, and tends to be formed in waves, or ripples; and ‘ah-ah’ lava, which is very sharp – certainly sharp enough to cut feet (hence the ‘ah-ah’!), and even sharp enough to cut into and through the soles of flip-flops and sandals.
There were many beautiful water-carved sand and rock formations, and lots of tidal pools. The island is home to the bright red and long-legged sally light-foot crabs. They were scrabbling around on the lava with no problem, of course.
Just off-shore a gang of brown pelicans were busy fishing. They are certainly not as sleek or graceful as the boobies, and tend to hit the water with a resounding plop. But their big bills seem to come up full fairly often, and if they’re close enough you can watch the fish as it makes its way from bill to gullet.
We continued walking to a water-filled cavern where some Galapagos fur seals were lazing about in the shade of whatever crevice, nook or cranny they could find. Our guide advised us that we could ‘swim with the seals', and a few of us jumped into the pool, which was empty. But within a couple of minutes several of the seals joined us. It seemed like they considered it a game – swimming, rolling, and diving – sometimes almost appearing to imitate the moves we made. I was lucky to enjoy several minutes with one of the seals who, without taking its eyes off me for even one second, was rubbing its back on an overhanging submerged rock. Its eyes were so big and soft looking, almost gelatinous. After a bit of a rub it would roll over a few times, then dive down towards the cavern floor, swim off for a bit, and then return to its rubbing rock, watching me the whole while.
For more information on the Galapagos fur seal go to https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Arctocephalus_galapagoensis/
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We spent the night cruising and woke up at Isabella Island, the largest of the Galapagos Islands, where we spent the entire day. We climbed up Isabella’s volcano to the crater, which is now filled with water – and called “Darwin’s Lake”. Although there is no communication between this lake and the sea, the water is apparently very salty, like the Dead Sea.
Our boat, the 'Iguana', is in the background.
We carried on even higher to the top of a ridge from which we could see another very large lava flow, again fairly recent.
View from the top
Up here was where I spotted a Darwin’s hawk.
In the afternoon we took little boats around the island’s coastal cliffs to watch blue-footed boobies and a kind of gull or tern with beautiful red eyes. We also spied quite a few small Galapagos penguins, with very white breasts, and of course lots of marine iguanas and sea lions.
As we were having lunch we cruised to Point Espinoza on Fernandina Island (also known as Marlborough Island). Our little boats took us to a beach of medium-sized black rocks, and walked across rope, pa-hoi-hoi and ah-ah lava into the ‘land of the marine iguana’. There were hundreds of them, all sun-bathing on the rocks or resting in some shady crevice. They were exceedingly well camouflaged, their skins as black as the rocks, and just as shiny.
So well camouflaged, it's difficult to see them....
By the water’s edge a small striated heron, with beautiful brown, grey and black plumage, was fishing.
We walked on to an area of white sand where the iguanas had previously laid their large, white and soft-skinned eggs. The hatchlings were already gone (or we wouldn’t have been able to walk there), but it was interesting to see that the iguanas could lay their eggs and raise their young in such an open, unprotected area. There are so few predators on these islands it has made for some unusual behaviours.
At the end of the white sand beach was an area of black rock covered with beautiful, glistening and almost iridescent green algae. There were lots of sally light-foot crabs here. And high in the trees, a few more Darwin's hawks. It was a beautiful spot to sit, in the warm light of the afternoon sun, enjoying the colourful, undisturbed landscape.
As usual there were lots of sea lions swimming not far from shore. So fun to watch...
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That night we cruised again, awaking to North Seymour Island, a small island just north of Santa Cruz Island. We went ashore at another black rock beach, but the rocks here were boulder-sized.
Slightly inland we found a colony of frigates, mostly sitting high up in trees, were also involved in mating. For the males, this involves inflating a red pouch or sac below their beaks. While it’s inflated they cannot fly, so we had lots of opportunity to watch, and take photos of these fabulous birds.
At the end of this, my last, day here I sat on the beach and said my good-byes to the Galapagos, and to the ocean – at least for now. Tomorrow I fly to Guayaquil, where I plan to catch a bus to Cuenca, which is well inland.
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