Jim and Linda Visit the Galapagos Islands

About the Islands

We have long wanted to visit these magical islands and finally managed it in 2004. Young by geological standards, the islands are only about 5 million years old and have never been connected to any continental area. In fact, the largest island, Isabella, which was featured in the movie Master and Commander, was formed within the past several thousand years when volcanic erruptions filled in the space between separate islands.

As a result of this unique geology, the islands have many endemic species found nowhere else. Alas, centuries of human visitation have wreaked havoc on the native wildlife. Pirates and whalers used the islands for provisioning during long voyages. Goats they released on the islands as a source of food have had the usual deleterious effect. More direct predation by humans decimated the population of the giant tortoises that give the islands their name. By one estimate, based on logs of New England whaling ships, more than 100,000 tortoises were carried off for food. The tortoises were ideal as a source of food. They could survive for months without food or water. Once turned on their backs, they could be stowed easily and slaughtered whenever it was convenient.

Today, efforts are underway to restore the tortoise population by captive breeding programs and hunting feral goats. We stopped at one of the captive breeding sites on our first day in the islands and had our picture taken by another member of the tour.

The fauna

Some people no doubt come to the islands for the geology, but they are a distinct minority. For most, it is the fantastic animals that lure us into the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a week long trip on a medium-sized boat. Besides the birds, there were such marvels as Lava Lizards, Marine Iguanas, Land Iguanas, and two species of Sea Lions.

Braving the cold water, due mainly to the Humboldt Current, we snorkeled several times, giving us a chance to

• Watch pensuins swimming underwater. The Galapagos Penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) is the only penguin found north of the equator, and then just barely.
• Have sea lions literally swim circles around us. They seemed to be showing off.
• Swim with Galapagos sharks (Carcharhinus galapagensis) . The sharks were small and relatively harmless, but Jim was no doubt a bit reckless, and definitely in violation of the rules, when he tried to grab one by the tail and succeeded in touching it on the side.

The bird list from the Islands is not long, but is interesting. We managed to see all the endemic species, and even found a rarity for the islands, a family group of Pied-billed Grebes. If you're really interested in the birds we saw on the trip, we've included a report containing the complete list.

Although they are not common, there are even spiders to be found on the Islands

Photo Spread

We've gathered most of the photos from the trip into a nice presentation.

Galapagos Videos
(uses Windows Media Viewer)

We have something new in the report this year: videos. These are short — the longest is about 3 minutes &mdash with natural sound, not music. We hope you like them.

• Waved Albatross Display: This was the highlight of the trip for both of us. We took over 20 minutes of video and extracted the best into this segment. Notice the sharp "snap" sound they make by clacking their beaks together. The rest of the ceremony resembles fencing with beaks.
• Blue-footed Booby Display: In contrast to the display of the Waved Albatross, the Blue-footed Booby is slow and restrained.
• Santa Fe Land Iguana: The land iguana on Santa Fe Island is a separate species from the land iguanas on the other islands. It survives by eating the pads and fruit of Opuntia cactus (a relative of our common prickly pear) that grows into large trees, such as this one Linda is standing by.
• Sea Lions Fighting: This isn't up to the quality of something you might see on Nature, but is does show the beach master fending off a rival. These are the Galapagos race of the common California Sea Lion.
• Sea Lions on Boat: It turns out that sea lions sometimes prefer sleeping on boats instead of the beach.
• Dubious Finch IDs: It happens that "Darwin's Finches" aren't as easy to tell apart as you might think. This video shows some finches on the ground that Jim tries to identify.

Postscript: Getting there is not half the fun

The tour started in Quito, Ecuador. (The islands are claimed by Ecuador.) Continental Airlines has a convenient nonstop flight from Houston. It was a bit long at five hours, and a bit cramped in a 737, but did managed to avoid Miami International Airport. We arrived in Quito about midnight and searched in vain for our bags. "How could the bags get lost on a nonstop flight?" "Weather," we were told. "We had to leave some bags on the ground in Houston because of the weather."

"What do we do now?"

"No problem. We'll send them to your hotel."

"But we're going to the Galapagos tomorrow."

"We'll send them there."

"But..."

The bags followed us for four days while we boarded the boat that was to be our home for the rest of the trip, wearing the same clothes each day. Well, we did buy some T-shirts and got some things washed on the boat. We were pleased when we saw our two duffels being ferried from another boat to ours, but ruefully admitted we had overpacked.

This was not an isolated incident. Continental also left our bags on the ground in Quito on the return trip, lamely claiming weather again. Since the weather in Quito was quite a bit different from the weather in Houston, we were suspicious. A fellow traveler from Ecuador told us that the hold of the plane was full of fresh cut roses, which apparently are worth more to Continental than customer satisfaction. At lease the bags got to us before we left Houston.