The Galapagos Islands Offer Kaleidoscope of Sights, Sounds and Experiences

Galapagos Iguana (Photo by Karen Sitnick)

Enchanting, mysterious, prehistoric — those are some of the words to describe the Galapagos Islands. Having recently returned from visiting this archipelago off the western coast of Ecuador, I’d add majestic, spectacular and inspiring. It was a trip of a lifetime.

I’ve always been intrigued by the story of Charles Darwin’s short visit to this natural wonderland that inspired his theory of evolution. But more recently, as a budding photographer, I was excited to explore and capture the remarkable array of wildlife inhabiting these islands. This turned out to be far beyond anything I imagined.

My husband and I began our journey in Quito, Ecuador’s capital. This tiny South American country boasts an incredibly diverse ecology, and as our tour guide shared, you can have breakfast in the rainforest, lunch in the Andes, dinner on the coast and then take a short puddle jump for cocktails in the Galapagos.

Which we did, after visiting the old city’s 16th-century baroque monasteries, golden churches and the Equatorial Museum, straddling the center of our world standing on the equator.

From Quito, we flew to Baltra Island to board the 100-passenger luxury cruise ship that would escort us to a half-dozen islands over the next eight days. We were greeted at the dock by a couple of lounging sea lions, the first pair of many to win my heart. Our ship set off circling Daphne Island, a volcanic cone with a crater floor that serves as an important breeding site for the iconic blue-footed boobies. Our first glimpse of these incredible birds was breathtaking as they really do have very blue feet!

We mingled with our fellow travelers over champagne and learned from one of the seven highly knowledgeable naturalists on board about the following day’s expeditions. An advantage of cruising is that the ship sails from island to island during the night, losing no time for daily excursions.

We awoke to see Egas Port in Santiago Island from our veranda. Transported from the ship by small lifeboat-type zodiacs, we stepped onto a sandy beach with black-rock, blue-water grottos. The adventure began with a 1½-mile hike where we met fur seals, lava lizards, sea lions and both land and marine iguanas, these creatures looking every bit like prehistoric little dragons.

We were stunned to see hordes of bright red, blue and yellow Sally lightfoot crabs over and in every nook and cranny. And then we witnessed a pair of American oyster catcher birds, clearly a mom and dad, pinching up an oyster to feed their tiny baby. And this was only day one!

We took our zodiac back to the ship, and after a delicious buffet lunch went back out to visit nearby Rabida Island for a fun afternoon of snorkeling with angelfish off the red sandy beach.

During the following days, we visited several of the inner loop islands. On Isabela Island we caught sight of Galapagos penguins (Yes, there are penguins at the equator!) and the very rare flightless cormorant birds whose tiny, atrophied wings are the result of having no predators, a perfect example of Darwin’s evolution.

Brown pelicans ignored us as we floated by on our zodiacs, and at Tagus Cove we snorkeled with green sea turtles, stingrays and baby sharks. On Sullivan Bay in Santiago Island, we walked over a massive swirling, hardened lava field and slipped inside lava tunnels.

Our awesome view from the top of Bartolome Island’s volcano — a steep 386-step climb — of pinnacle rock leaning between two volcanoes is one of the region’s most photographed sights. We hoped to see the pink flamingos that make Las Bachas beach on Santa Cruz Island their home and were rewarded by a pair of gorgeous long-legged beauties, posing for us in their pool.

But it was the smorgasbord of experiences on North Seymour Island that remains the highlight for me. This island is home to the largest colony of frigate birds whose male species balloon up their bright red chests to lure mates. We watched a couple perform an intimate exchange of twig gifts leading to their mutual consent to be partners — her long beaked head resting on his huge expansive red chest.

Then, we strolled along the beach among yellow-and-orange land iguanas and around families of sea lions, rollicking in the sand, nursing their young and playing tag with us. We could only be this close to these fantastic creatures because they have no fear of humans, because humans do not hurt them. A lesson in nature for us all.

On our last day, we visited the National Park Service tortoise breeding center and the Charles Darwin Research Station in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. We learned that during the 17th century, pirates and whalers plundered the giant tortoise population, leaving the species endangered. At the center the tiny sub-species are hatched and cared for until they are old enough to be released into the wild. Later in the afternoon, we had the opportunity to meet several of these gigantic, magnificent creatures roaming the grasses in the Highlands.

The hundreds of photographs I took captured many marvelous moments in time from our Galapagos journey. But it is the experience of having been so close to the wonders of nature that will forever remain in our hearts.

Karen Sitnick is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.

 

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