The place is like a new creation, the birds and beasts do not get out of our way; the pelicans and sea-lions look in our faces as if we had no right to intrude on their solitude; the small birds are so tame that they hop upon our feet.
– The Seventh Lord Byron,
1825
The seventh Lord Byron called at the Galapagos on a grim mission: In command of H.M.S. Blonde, he was on his way to the Hawaiian Islands with the bodies of Hawaii’s young King Kamehameha II and his Queen, dead from measles contracted on a state visit to England. Nevertheless, he was inspired to write a gentle, warm description that might have done credit to his illustrious poet-cousin, the sixth Lord Byron.
Since their accidental discovery in 1535 by the bishop of Panama, Fray Tomás de Ber-langa – he was blown off i course during a voyage to Peru ] – these rugged volcanic is-’ lands 600 miles west of Ecuador’s mainland have been known for their unusual plants and wildlife. The bishop also noted the remarkable tameness of the islands’ birds and vividly described their strange iguanas and giant tortoises (galdpágos) to his emperor, Spain’s Carlos V. He evidently wasn’t so taken with the landscape, saying it looked “as though at some time God had scattered stones.”
But it was Charles Darwin who brought the islands to the world’s attention. Darwin came to the Galapagos as a young naturalist during a round-the-world voyage aboard the British survey ship H.M.S. Beagle. He stayed less than six weeks in the autumn of 1835 and was not to publish his findings until almost 25 years later, but what he deduced began a revolution in human thought.
It was in 1859 that Darwin published On the Origin of Species, outlining his theory that evolution occurs by natural selection, and noting that one of the main sources for his inspiration was the unique and diverse wildlife of the Galapagos Islands. For during his brief stay in the islands he had noted that their plant and animal life differed markedly from that of any other place in the world and that there were marked variations from island to island. He theorized that creatures and plant life were carried to these originally barren volcanic islands by strong winds and the Humboldt Current, which flows northward from Antarctica paralleling the western coast of South America. As life adapted to the environment of individual islands, it took on unique forms.
Darwin took special interest in the Galapagos’ dragon-like marine iguanas, which lie piled atop each other on the lava rocks when they’re not feeding on seaweed. The world’s only marine lizards, they drink sea water and periodically eject the excess salt through their nostrils in fine streams of fluid.
Contrary to Lord Byron’s lyric description, these islands are no Eden. They probably were nearly that, until man began despoiling them, long before Darwin came. British buccaneers and privateers used them as a base from which to attack Spain’s gold-bearing galleons and plunder stretches of the South American mainland. They found the Galapagos’ tortoises a handy source of fresh meat, and over the years removed thousands of the gentle giants, stacking them alive atop each other in ships’ holds, to slaughter as the need arose. British and American sealers and whalers later followed the same course, depleting the fur seal and whale populations. Black rats escaped from ships in port and ran wild on the islands, destroying many other native creatures, in-eluding the Galapagos rat. Later settlers brought dogs, cats, pigs, and goats, whose descendants now run wild on almost all the islands. Even the fire ant has found its way to the Galapagos.
Fortunately, by the 1950’s it was realized that many creatures were found only in the Galapagos: tortoises, marine iguanas, flightless cormorants, Darwin’s finches, mockingbirds, gulls, doves, and penguins. In 1959, exactly 100 years after publication of On the Origin of Species, the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands was founded, under the auspices of UNESCO and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. It is headquartered in Brussels, with a permanent field station at Academy Bay on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos. Here a small, dedicated staff – with a budget of a little over $200,000 annually – carries on the study and conservation of Galapagos animal and plant life, and also operates weather, seismographic, and oceanographic stations. Most fascinating of all is the station’s tortoise-rearing program. Eggs are removed from the islands, hatched in protected environments, and returned to their “native islands” when they are large enough to escape wild animals.
Working in tandem with the Foundation is the Ecuadorian government, which set aside the archipelago as the Galapagos National Park and enacted laws protecting indigenous wildlife. The government controls access to uninhabited reaches of all the islands (90 percent of the territory). Currently a maximum of 80 persons is allowed to set foot in this area at one time.
Obviously this means that visitors, no matter how well-intentioned and concerned, do not go strolling all over the landscape: One approaches the Galapagos on the Galapagos’ terms. And that means no camping, backpacking, or straying from carefully marked pathways.
Choicest of the relatively few options available to travelers who wish to visit the islands are the cruises aboard M / V Buccaneer, the largest vessel now in service among the islands. Although the Buccaneer was originally built to carry 250 passengers, its American owner-operator, long-time Guayaquil resident Capt. K. Michael Gordon, refitted it to accommodate the limit of 80. Rather than grouse about this drop in his passenger payload, Mike is protective of the islands.
“The archipelago is a world treasure, and it’s going to remain one,” he told us emphatically. Mike can’t captain his own ship at sea – Ecuadorian law mandates that all ships sailing the country’s waters must have Ecuadorian captain and crew. But he sails on many of the voyages, often with his wife Judy and their two baby daughters.
Mike Gordon has hired a cadre of young naturalist-guides, who sail aboard the ship, present orientation programs and special lectures, and conduct all shore excursions. They are very strict about keeping within the Park Service’s guidelines. This, we soon found, is not only because they are dedicated, but because they are subject to a $100 fine by the Ecuadorian government should any of their guests be discovered off the allowed paths. It’s a rather controlled method of exploring the islands, but neither regimented nor grim. On the contrary, the guides’ contagious enthusiasm and humor soon sparked an unusual degree of camaraderie among the passengers on our cruise. And no matter how much “homework” some of us had done in advance, their rather exceptional degree of on-the-spot knowledge provided insights we hadn’t expected.
The voyage began after a morning flight from Guayaquil to Baltra, the only island in the Galapagos with a commercial airstrip. The United States occupied this island during World War II, building an air base as part of its program for defending the Panama Canal. The only reason for coming here is to board the Buccaneer, which we found anchored off a cove just a short bus ride away from the airstrip. Baltra is a barren and thoroughly inhospitable-looking spot, made even more so because U.S. servicemen did more than their share to extinguish the island’s wildlife, killing hordes of land iguanas and one species of mockingbird found on no other island.
On Baltra we had our introduction to the sturdy flat-bottomed, diesel-powered pangas, which ferried us from a landing dock to the Buccaneer. They are used for landings, wet and dry: “Dry” means passengers step onto rocks and walk ashore, and “wet” means they jump into knee-deep water and wade ashore. But since “dry” often turned to “wet,” depending on changing currents and wind conditions, most of us automatically took off socks and shoes for each transfer.
There are 19 islands and numerous islets within the Galapagos archipelago. Our week’s cruise touched eight islands, including Santa Cruz, where we visited the Darwin Station at Academy Bay. The itinerary showed an astonishing variety of terrains, from torturous lava fields to desert, grassy pampas-like areas, mangrove swamps, and occasional semi-tropical vegetation.
Each day brought extraordinary encounters. We smiled at tiny, shy Galapagos penguins waddling about on the coastal rocks, and gaped at flightless cormorants – surely one of the world’s strangest birds – drying off on shore after a fishing expedition, their stubby vestigial wings extended. One afternoon we watched, still and hidden, as a bevy of brilliant pink flamingos on the far side of a lagoon executed a graceful courtship dance. We remembered Lord Byron’s gentle description as a tiny mockingbird hopped unconcernedly among our feet. And we became acquainted with several of the 13 finch species unique to the Galapagos. Their beaks differ slightly; six species’ are strong and thick, each suited to crack different-sized seeds. Tree finches have somewhat parrot-like beaks, while the remarkable little woodpeckers and mangrove finches use their long, sharply pointed beaks to hold branches or cactus spines while probing for insects.
Eventually we learned to tell the difference between the sea lions who greeted us in barking masses on many islands and the less common fur seals, which are smaller, have broader, shorter heads, and almost unbearably sad eyes.
On Hood Island, our guide stopped and motioned silently for us to sit down among the rocks. We heard strange clacking noises as we spotted two Waved Albatrosses, dancing rhythmically opposite each other in a small clearing, as they rubbed and clicked their great yellow bills together in what sounded like a chorus of castanets. Another of the giants soared in, its wingspan a good eight feet, and settled with quiet unconcern nearby. In all the world, the Waved Albatross breeds only on Hood Island and another off the coast of Peru.
On one stretch of Hood Island our paths led among dense colonies of nesting blue-footed boobies, who incubate their eggs under their feet. The birds followed our movements with swiveling necks, nervously opening their pincer-like beaks when we came too close.
Sitting around the Buccaneer’s cozy little lounge on the way back to Guayaquil, several of us began playing a “pride of lions” word game. We had seen, we one-upped each other, frenzies of finches, tumbles of tortoises, inversions of iguanas, bumbles of boobies, slatherings – maybe even surfeits – of seals. And, somebody ventured timidly, “terrors of tourists?”
We think not. Early during the cruise, a small group of us walked an isolated stretch of beach as sunset began. The tide edged in gently, the pink-tinged foam licking the brown sand. One lone pelican stood at the ocean’s edge, wet and oblivious, contemplating whatever lone pelicans contemplate. And as we watched unnoticed, one of our camera-slung lot stood before it, circled slowly two or three times, then reached out with one finger and furtively touched a wing. The pang we felt was no more for the threatened wild things of this globe than for ourselves – coming thousands of miles for one brief, groping attempt to meet a world that can never be again.
Galapagos Tourist Information
An eight-day cruise on the Buccaneer costs $899 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations at the Grand Hotel in Guayaquil. Add to this air fare from the United States to Ecuador (Braniff flies to Guayaquil and Quito). Flights within Ecuador are included in package costs. It’s best to reserve as far in advance as possible, but if one or two persons decide to go at the last minute, they can often be accommodated.
The cool season is from June to December, when the Humboldt Current sweeps through the archipelago. Air temperatures seldom rise above 77°F, and can be much cooler. Bring windbreaker, wool sweater, heavy socks, scarves – but don’t forget the sunscreen. Equatorial sun can burn any time. A hat is a must. From December to May, expect intermittent rain and sunny dry spells. Both sea and air temperatures are much warmer during this season, but generally it’s a dry atmospheric heat.
Although the Buccaneer is the largest and most luxurious vessel currently serving the islands, don’t expect a posh cruise ship. Accommodations are a bit Spartan; meals are well-prepared, with friendly, pleasant service by Ecuadorian waiters. Dress on shipboard is very casual. You may want to dress up for the captain’s party or the farewell dinner and Neptune Ceremony, held as the Buccaneer crosses the equator.
Money is exchanged aboard ship (25 Ecuadorian sucres equal $1 U.S.). There’s a small, fairly well-stocked souvenir shop on board, but we found the best place to buy handicrafts is the Boutique de Artesanias, which you’ll spot on the walk back to the village on Santa Cruz Island after visiting the Darwin Station. Look for woodcarvings, weavings, wall hangings, exquisite straw work and baskets, pottery, ceramic and wooden jewelry – everything in the shop is first-rate.
The Galapagos terrain is rugged and some of the hikes strenuous. Boarding the pangas from the Buccaneer can be tricky for passengers with physical liabilities, and so can the “wet” landings. If you have health problems or a handicap, you’d be well advised to consult the Galapagos Tourist Corporation’s New York office for further advice and instructions.
Write Ms. Linda Lipman, Dept. D,Galapagos Tourist Corp., N.A., 888Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019 forbrochures and descriptive literature. Orphone toll-free, (800) 223-0278. Yourtravel agent can confirm air, sea, and landreservations through this office. The NewYork office also books trips to Guayaquiland Quito, the scenic Quito-to-Guayaquilrail trip, and stays at the attractive PuntaCarnero Inn near Salinas, one of theSouth American Pacific coast’s majordeep-sea fishing resorts.
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