The Galápagos Islands

The Galápagos Islands are one of the most incredible places in the world for seeing wildlife. Read about my trip there in October 2008 below or go straight to the Galápagos photo gallery

The Galápagos Islands are a small group of islands located about 1000km off the South American coast in the Pacific Ocean, straddling the equator. They are owned by Ecuador and their official name is the 'Archipiélago de Colón'. The more familiar name Galápagos comes from the spanish word 'Galápago' meaning saddle, after the giant tortoises whose shell, adapted for reaching high vegetation, reminded spanish sailors of a saddle. The islands have been known by several other names over history, most notably 'Las Encantadas' - the enchanted isles due to the difficulty of finding them with the currents and the mist that surrounds them for much of the year. Although they had been used by traders and buccaneers for several centuries before, it was the visit of Charles Darwin in 1835 that brought the islands to the attention of the scientific world.

All the islands are volcanic and are essentially just the peaks of volcanoes sticking out from the sea. A 'hot-spot' leads to a high level of volcanic activity in the area creating the volcanoes and, as the Nazca tectonic plate on which they sit moves eastward a chain of volcanoes is created, the islands in the west being the youngest and still active, those in the east being older and inactive, slowly sinking back into the sea. This is very significant because it means that the islands have never been connected to the mainland so any wildlife there must have crossed the ocean to get there. This explains the almost complete absence of land mammals (prior to the arrival of man) as mammals would find it very difficult to survive at sea long enough to reach the islands. Reptiles on the other hand can survive much longer without food or water and birds can be carried great distances in a short time by strong winds.

Once there the animals evolved independently from their relatives on the mainland and many eventually became new species. Even between the islands the different conditions lead to the evolution of different species. There is therefore a high number of endemic species and sub-species on the islands which is one thing that draws so many naturalists and scientists to the islands. The other main attraction is how approachable the wildlife is. With so few natural predators on the islands and very little human contact during most their history the islands' wildlife has very little fear of people.

The most popular way to visit the Islands is on a cruise. This makes it possible to visit more different islands and spend more time on them than if you stay at a hotel on one of the large islands. There are around 80 yachts licensed to do cruises around the Galápagos islands of various sizes and classes. I was on a fairly small yacht, the Flamingo I, which has the advantages that there are less people on the island at a time and it can get to some places that the larger boats are not allowed to go. It's not possible to visit all the islands on a one week cruise but we visited one or two different ones every day and on each island saw something that we hadn't seen before.

On arrival on San Cristobal, even before getting on the boat we were welcomed by sealions, brown pelicans and various other sea birds. After a brief introduction to the islands and the boat we sailed to a small beach for our first chance of snorkeling. There were countless tropical fish, sea-urchins, starfish and a couple of rays, but the highlight was swimming with the very playful sealions, who follow you around and dive down with you, showing off their increadible agility under the water (which they don't maintain on land!). After the snorkeling it was off to Kicker Rock for sunset. Kicker Rock is as dramatic steep-sided rock jutting out of the ocean just north of San Cristobal. It is also known as León Dormido as, if you have a good imagination, it looks like a sleeping lion.

From there we travelled overnight to Genovesa, a small island in the north west of Galápagos. This was where we had our first proper landing, walking a small loop from the beach. Here we saw nesting frigate birds and red-footed boobies, finches, herons and mockingbirds amoung others. Most of the wildlife takes little notice of you and some, such as the mockingbirds are inquisitive and hop around at your feet.

The rest of the week followed a similar plan, with walks on the islands and snorkeling off the beaches every morning and afternoon and then travelling between the islands overnight. Every day we saw something new that wasn't found on a previous island, such as the flightless cormorants on Fernandina, giant tortoises on Santa Cruz and land iguanas on North Seymour. And the wildlife watching didn't stop when you got back on the boat. On several occasions pilot whales and dolphins came up right by the boat and we saw larger whales further off, there were often frigate birds, storm petrols or shearwaters following the boat.

Visiting the Galapaogos is an unforgettable experience, but in order for it to stay that way it needs to be protected. The national park service does a good job (exceptional by South American standards) of protecting the park and regulating tourism and other activities within the park but despite that there are still more people visiting the islands every year and the population of the towns is also increasing. Conflicting interests between those managing the park for tourism and those making a living from farming and fishing (some of it legal, some not) add to the difficulties.