More on the animals of the
Galapagos
With a baby sea lion.
During our first day on
Isabela we took a boat out to go snorkeling. Within the first hour I saw
an eagle ray, a parrot fish, a lobster, and several sea turtles. However, the
sea lions were by far my favorite. At the end of our first snorkeling session
my three friends and I encountered a young sea lion. He was very friendly and
played with us underwater. He swam in circles around us and upside-down underneath
us. When we dove down underwater he would swim directly at us and then dodge us
at the last second. One of the most incredible moments was when he swam slowly
up to my face so that our noses were almost touching and then did a little bark
and swam away. I had never been so close to an animal in the wild or had such a
person experience.
Next we rode the boats over
to a marine iguana nesting area. We walked along a trail through volcanic rock
and sand amongst hundreds of iguanas. They are perfectly camouflaged and as we
were walking there were several moments when it seemed like an iguana appeared
out of nowhere. These are the only iguanas in the world that can swim. They
look like sea snakes when they swim and they sometimes sit partway in the water
facing the sun to warm themselves. Our guide told us that these iguanas can
swim for up to four hours!
The iguanas warming themselves in the sun.
Iguanas in their nests. We were lucky we went during breeding season - in two weeks the iguanas won't be there anymore.
The next day we went to a
tortoise breeding center that is working to repopulate the endangered species
of Galapagos on the islands (there are 11 different species in the Galapagos!).
Here we learned that Galapagos are not sexually mature until they are 25-35
year old and we got to see the tortoises at different stages of their lives.
Flamingos on the way to the center.
These galapagos are 8 years old!
An egg.
25 day old Galapago!
The tortoises below are part of
a population that was almost wiped out when one of the volcanoes on Isabela
erupted in the 1970’s. Helicopters were sent in to rescue the Galapagos and
they were taken to the breeding center. The 20 tortoises that were taken to the
center knew by instinct that they were the only ones of their species left and
started reproducing like crazy (the females laid 5 times the amount of eggs in
a year as they normally do) and now there are over 2,000 that have been
released back into the wild.
Wall of Tears
We went to visit an old
prison on Isabela, built on a site that was originally a US army base during
World War I. All that is left of the prison is some of the concrete foundations
overgrown with plants, a water tower, and a huge stone wall. As a form of
discipline, punishment, and a strategy to prevent an uprising, the directors of
the prison had the prisoners construct a wall that would eventually surround
the prison.
While the wall was being built, part of it collapsed, and a stone
fell on the foot of one of the directors. He was evacuated to the mainland in
order to receive medical treatment, during which other officials found out
about the construction of the wall and the terrible condition the prisoners
were living in. The other officers had the construction of the wall stopped
immediately. Many say that the conditions in this prison were as bad or worse
then Alcatraz because of the humidity, heat, and absence fresh drinking water
on the island. The prisoners never tried to escape because the rest of the
island is desert and the other islands that have fresh water are miles away. There
is still one prisoner alive today who lives in the Galapagos. He says he was
imprisoned for stealing cows, but many people are skeptical as to whether this
is the truth.
We hiked up on top of the
hill above the wall where there was a gorgeous panoramic view of the island:
That night was the first
night of Carnival, and it started off with a horse ride downtown:
Kids playing carnival with foam in the street.
A kid waiting for the horses. The winning horse!
Volcán Sierra Negra
The next we went on a 6 hour
hike to and around Sierra Negra, the second largest active crater in the world.
It started to rain just as were getting to the lava fields from the 1970 eruption
that killed the Galapagos. We walked rest of the hike (four more hours) in
pouring rain, which may have been lucky for us because normally the hike is
blistering hot and without any tree cover. I’m not sure which one I would have
preferred. Especially with the rain, it felt like the end of the world.
Walking through the lava fields.
Playing Carnival
For three days and nights
after the horse race, there was a constant party on the beach for Carnival. A
stage was set up for dance competitions and a beautify pageant, a soccer field
was constructed in the sand, and food and drink vendors lined the beach. One
afternoon I went over with some friends before dinner just as the kid’s soccer
competition was ending. They were about to start a women’s soccer game and were
looking for teams of five to enter.
In action on the field.
I had not played soccer since 6th grade, but somehow my friend who plays for her university at home convinced me. An Ecuadorian girl overheard that we were trying to make a team and asked if she could join. However, we still needed one more player. We were asking every girl that walked past when all of a sudden a
slightly drunk and slightly large woman who had been sitting on the sideline
jumped up and said she would play with us. With this haphazardly put together
team we won the first round and then won the final!
A beautiful sunset on the beach that night.
Los Túneles
On our last full day on
Isabela we took an hour boat ride out past Tortuga Island to see rocks that are
in the formation of tunnels and bridges. We rode out with local fishermen and
they expertly maneuvered their boats among the rocks. We also go to walk on top
of these formations. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because of
the beautiful arches and the close proximity of the cacti to the ocean. We also
got to snorkel around and saw some penguins up close and a sting ray.
Long journey home
We woke up the next morning
at 4:30 to go back home to Quito. The sunrise over the ocean during our
two-hour boat ride back to Santa Cruz was absolutely stunning. On Santa Cruz we
stopped to see Solitario George, which is pretty much obligatory if you go to
the Galapagos, and the land iguanas. Solitario George is the last of his
species of Galapago. They have tried to get him to mate with other species, but
each time the eggs have been infertile.
Solitario George looking very lonely.
There are 11 species of
Galapagos on the Galapagos Islands. There used to be 14 species, but 3 have
gone extinct due to human and natural causes. Isabela Island has 5 species of
Galapagos, one for each of its volcanoes. This happened because the species
lived around the volcanoes and developed separately before the volcanoes
combined to make one island.
This map is a little hard to see in this picture, but it shows the different species of tortoises on the islands.
The land iguanas are a
beautiful yellow, but they are not as cool as the marine iguanas because they
can’t swim and they can’t climb the cacti to eat the fruit – they wait below
for the fruit to fall. However, several years ago a marine iguana and a land
iguana mated and created a super iguana that could swim, climb cacti to eat the
fruit, and is striped like a zebra. This super iguana is still too young to
reproduce, so they still don’t know if it is able to.
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