Galapagos Islands – Living In The Discovery Channel

February 1-5, 2018

All Aboard The Santa Cruz II

We had an early start to February, getting to the airport for our 9am flight. Going to the Galapagos has some special procedures around entering, and we were in a group tour, so we actually couldn’t check in online the night before, which gave us a little anxiety, causing us to get there a bit earlier. There’s a conservation fee that you pay to fly to the Galapagos, which lies about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, and is even a full time zone behind. The flight connected in Guayaquil, the biggest city in Ecuador and a major shipping port in the southwestern part of the country. It was one of those connections where you remain onboard though, so that was quite easy.

On the plane, shortly before landing, the crew came around spraying some kind of disinfectant up by the overhead storage, and then when we walked off the plane, we had to walk over a special large mat that would somehow disinfect our shoes. They were also very strict about bringing food of any kind onto the islands, as everything there is quite a fragile ecosystem and is heavily protected. So, I had to quickly eat the nuts and apple that I’d taken from the airport lounge in Quito.

From there, we were shuttled to the other side of Baltra Island (where the airport resides and pretty much nothing else), to the port where we’d be tendered to our ship, the Santa Cruz II, where we’d spend the next five days. On our panga (a pretty big zodiac boat) were two girls about my age, one of whom was still in medical school, which I was impressed by considering how little time off they have, but also the expense of the trip (which my parents graciously treated me too, thanks again mom and dad!). There are apparently some backpacker hostels on one of the islands, and then you take day-boats to the different islands each day for activities, but being on a ship and being able to just pull up to a new place each morning was both super-convenient, but also allowed us to see some of the further-away islands that can’t be reached on a smaller day-boat.

The cruise had about 80 people on it, a big contingent of whom were American retirees from different parts of the country, a couple families, a big group from Israel, and a few younger couples. We were greeted onboard with lunch, which was really tasty, with a massive buffet of seafood, pastas, salads, desserts and a really good seafood soup. It was pretty funny for me to see my parents in a new social situation. We ended up sitting on our own for this meal, but then seeing them chat with some of their peers as we got to know people and go on excursions was a new experience for me, as I’m sure it was for them to see me do the same with people of their age group. I think I was viewed as a bit of a curiosity among them.

The first afternoon we did our first excursion with our guide Sebastian, and our group of ~15 who we’d be with for the remaining days. Each night we were briefed on the activities for the following day, in a level of detail that I found hysterical, but relevant for the age group, and I think because most were Americans (we need lots of hand-holding). They’d tell us whether it was a wet or dry landing, an important thing, but then also if snorkeling was on the agenda, to not forget a swimsuit! After traveling myself or with my peers for so long, it made me appreciate the level of freedom and independence I’d been taking for granted. I took a picture of the second day’s itinerary, and you can get a sense of the detail involved.

Cerro Dragon (Santa Cruz Island)

Our first excursion that afternoon was to Cerro Dragon (dragon hill), which involved a short walk up a hill, but for many of our group, this was a bit more involved (I even lent my mom my hiking poles), though there were several who were probably more fit than I was (particularly the libertarian couple from Nevada). The first things I noticed when we got on land was how different the environment looked from how I’d expected. To me, Galapagos was synonymous with beachy, sandy paradise. But in fact, these are all volcanic islands, and because of whatever climate prevails here, they are almost like little deserts! The air is super dry, there’s not much in the way of lush forests / plants, and the ground is mostly sharp volcanic rock.

But, it didn’t take more than a minute of walking to be completely amazed by the Galapagos. Our guide, Sebastian, told us from up ahead to be careful not to bother the iguana that was on the path. Now, in my life I’ve seen some iguanas, but most were of the size that you could hold in your hands. I’ve also been told to be careful of an animal, but never did I expect that this massive iguana, at least a meter long, would just be sitting, sunning itself on the walking path we were on. The most amazing part, though, was that it was completely unfazed by us. I’ve seen animals that are used to humans, but mostly in a zoo-like / sanctuary setting. But here we were the intruders, and the iguana didn’t feel threatened at all. This gave credence to how well the Galapagos are cared for, and made sense of the heavy restrictions on travel and tourism – you must be with an officially-licensed guide, for instance, and only a certain number of people may visit each island per day.

On this short, hour long walk, we saw flamingos, Galapagos (land) iguanas (yellow / red), sea iguanas (black), frigates (large black birds), Galapagos mockingbird, Darwin finches, prickly pear cactus, and palo santo trees (they looked completely dead at this time of the year, which is also when they’re used to produce essential oils and incense). Some fun facts that I wrote down at the time:

This hill, on the island of Santa Cruz, is named because of the iguanas there at the time of the pirates that arrived in the 1500s who thought they looked like dragons
Goats and other domesticated animals were brought to the Galapagos by the early pirates, whalers, and buccaneers. The Ecuadorian government has only just been able to get close to eradicating them with a hunting campaign
The land iguanas burrow holes for their females to come lay eggs. Each male can mate with up to six females
Darwin finches were named for him after he sent one to a friend of his who was a taxonomist who said it was a new species
Prickly pear trees are all over. They are the first things to grow on the island, and can be up to 6m tall
The iguanas eat the fruit of the tree when it falls to the ground. Even though they nearly blind, like snakes, they use their tongues to navigate and they can sense the vibration when one of the fruits falls
Flamingos are pretty rare in the Galapagos. They are a close cousin to the Chilean Flamingo, but more colorful

We returned in our panga, and pretty much everyone was still super excited from all that we’d seen, just in one hour! I was amazed, and excited for what the next few days would bring.

That night at dinner we brought in a new friend to our table, Geoff, a single guy from London about my parents’ age. He was a super fun addition to our trip, and I think we all got along and liked him for different reasons. He had a business back home that he had slowly backed himself out of to the extent that he only needed to be present for half the year, and spent the rest traveling, so he was going to be out in the Galapagos for a couple weeks beyond when our cruise finished.

Punta Vicente Roca (Isabela Island)

Our second day started with a panga tour around this outcropping on one of the islands that was famous for having tons of birds, turtles, and sea lions. It really felt like we were on safari, and the photos barely do it justice. We saw more frigates, blue-footed boobies, sea lions, sea crabs, turtles galore, and little colonies of sea iguanas just hanging out on top of and on the sides of rocks, totally defying gravity!

Then we got the chance to jump in and snorkel and see the turtles for ourselves. There were countless turtles, and it was so fun to see them up close. We were all warned to be careful around them, but inexperienced snorkelers / non-divers really didn’t know proper fin-kicking etiquette, and it felt like a bit of a mess. Thankfully, my dad and I could swim away and really get to see some on our own. Then, as I was ready to get out of the frigid waters (again, beachy paradise it is not), we saw two penguins just chilling on a nearby rock surveying the area. It was truly incredible, and I really felt like a kid in the zoo for the first time, but this was way more real.

Before I met up with my parents, I’d been thinking of what items I could give back to them to take home to help lighten my load. One of them was my telephoto lens, which honestly, I hadn’t used much in the prior few months as I was primarily using my wide-angle lens very happily. But this day made me change my mind, and I’m really grateful still (writing this many months later) that I didn’t make that mistake.

Punta Espinoza (Isabela Island)

This was definitely one of the highlights of the Galapagos, and certainly one of my life as well. As we got onto the island, I started to feel like it was familiar somehow, and then Sebastian told us that it was from a famous snake-baby iguana chase scene from the second season of Planet Earth, the incredible BBC documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough. If you haven’t, you should definitely spend the many hours watching it on Netflix.

On this island you could see the hardened lava flows, combined with new growth of trees that were just forming out of it (prickly pear cacti first). Thankfully, it was the iguana mating season, not when the babies would hatch, so we didn’t have to worry about any snakes. But wow, there were just hundreds, maybe thousands of them everywhere you looked! It was mesmerizing just to stand and watch them. There were even a couple scuffles, where you could see them squawking and spitting on each other as they prepared to battle. Fascinating stuff!

The other stars of the afternoon were the sea lions who were also everywhere, and getting super close to us humans! We were supposed to stay a few meters from them, but it was difficult because they would just show up near you without even noticing! They were adorable, super playful, and just a joy to watch.

Santa Cruz Island

Today was the day of the tortoises.

Galapagos is famous for its giant tortoises, and today we would get to see them in a sanctuary / nursery as well as in a more “wild” setting. Thirty years ago, there were only 15,000 giant tortoises left, mostly because whalers used them as a store of meat on the long journey home. The tortoises could be stacked upside down and survive for a year without any food. Additionally, the tortoises had to deal with the introduced species that the whalers brought like goats, rats, and pigs that not only harmed the tortoises directly, but also competed with them for food and disturbed their ecosystem.

Since the government began working to restore the population, they’ve been able to eliminate a lot of the introduced species and strictly regulate what items are allowed to be imported to the island, as Santa Cruz is the only island where people live year-round, the population of which is also strictly limited. Now, with the success of their conservation and breeding efforts, the tortoise population is now about 30,000. Even as we were driving along the roads to see the tortoises in the wild, we learned that if you hit a tortoise on the road, even by accident, it’s a massive $10,000 fine (about a year’s income for the average Ecuadorian), and you might even go to jail or lose your license. Thus, people drive pretty slowly on the island.

Our first stop was to the Darwin Center where we saw baby tortoises that were being nurtured before being re-released, and some bigger ones that were hoped would help with the reproductive efforts to sustain the population. There was even a memorial to one male tortoise, taxidermically preserved inside (no photography allowed), who had fathered a massive number of tortoise babies before he passed recently. They do a lot of other great conservation work and research at the Darwin Center, and have a pretty cool Instagram account, so if you’re looking to put your money towards environmental stewardship, this is a great organization to support.

After some time at the Center, we were bused to a private home / compound that had a massive piece of property where the giant tortoises happened to like a lot, and ended up just living in the area. They also have a massive restaurant to cater to all of the tourists, where we had lunch before taking a walk around the property to see these massive creatures in the wild. We were even treated to a live sex show, which was pretty sad / hilarious to watch, as it doesn’t seem like the female enjoys it much at all. To be so close to them though, within a couple meters probably, was a surreal experience. At the end of the tour, they had some old shells on display, which you could even climb inside to feel the weight (about 50 pounds). Of course, the whole group looked at me first when Sebastian suggested that we could have a try doing some push-ups inside one of the shells. Besides barely being able to fit, I made it look easy, but a couple of the older gents gave it a go as well.

Floreana Island

Our final day on the boat we spent the morning at Floreana Island, which is famous for its “post office”, but also for some murder mystery (this article is a fantastic read). It is the home of what was the only post office in the Galapagos for a very long time. Starting in 1793, whalers and other visitors would drop mail into this barrel on the island. Then, if you were returning home from the islands, you would go to the barrel and sort through the mail to see if there were any near where you lived, and if so, the tradition was to hand-deliver them personally.

Flash forward:
I love to write postcards, a joy I picked up from Sarah’s family, particularly her dad who is a post office aficionado. They’ve got tons of them up in their house, and always send them when they go away. I had started to take up that hobby as well on this trip, and took the time to write about 20 postcards on this occasion. They were free (the ship gave out the postcards; free advertising for them) and the postage was nonexistent, so I spent at least an hour writing and addressing these on the beach. Then, over the course of the next few months I got notifications of successful deliveries all around the US and a couple other countries too! Some were hand-delivered (no postage on them), and others were posted from within the same city, or same region. My parents took some home to deliver in NYC, and I took it upon myself to grab about 10 to deliver around the rest of the world. They would call out a location, and I would shrug and say, “well yah, maybe!”. Sadly, I haven’t been able to easily hand-deliver these, but I finally completed my mission 10 months later when I mailed the final card from the Hong Kong Central Post Office last month on my final day there. All in all, I helped deliver postcards to Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong!

After my postcard bonanza, my mom and I took a kayak around the small islands and jetties to see some more seal lions, birds and crabs. Also, it was just a beautifully peaceful time on the water amongst these animals without all the others on our ship, and with nobody else within shouting distance in the water.

That afternoon was another snorkel adventure at Champion Islet, an extinct shield volcano. This time, we were able to swim around a larger area, and it was afternoon so it was a bit warmer.

This was absolutely the most fun I’ve ever had snorkeling, and one of the coolest things I’ve done in my life. Once you jumped in, the sea lions were ALL AROUND US! They would swim right up to your face, to a point that I was almost a bit worried! They were so, so playful with us and each other, it was just a complete joy to be in there with them. A totally unique experience for sure. I’d encourage you to watch some of the videos from that (end of the gallery) in the slideshow from a computer. They’re amazing.

The final excursion was to Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island, where we got to see tons of beautiful animals on the beach like sharks, rays, birds and more crabs. Plus, the afternoon sun was warm and golden, making for some lovely photos.

We left the boat the following morning and headed back to the airport. It’s hard to describe how unbelievable this trip to the Galapagos was for me. I felt like I was on an episode of Planet Earth, like I was one of the Wild Thornberrys, like I was a kid again exploring the animal kingdom. A lot of the credit there is due to my parents for bringing me on this extravagant adventure, which I would never have been able to do on my own at this stage in my life!

Thank you both so much!!