In Oct/Nov 1990 I spent two weeks in Equador. Here are some photos from one week cruise among the Galapagos Islands.
After landing at the airport on Baltra we went to South Plaza which isn't very far away.
It looks a bit like a wedge, with the north shore a sandy beach with a lava rock slope up to
the south shore which is steep and rocky up to the high part of the island.
We landed on a stone jetty which was right in between two large sea lion males territory, so we had to get off and on when they were at the other ends of their territory, on their continual patrolling back and forth along the beach.
The ground was either sand beach or rocky lava, so we could walk around rather freely, just taking
care not to step on any plants or getting too close to the animals. The female sea lions didn't
mind our presence at all.
The male ones who hadn't staked out a part of the beach didn't mind either. Instead of being at the beach, they had gathered at the top of the island and took the steep rocky path up and down.
The next island we visited was Española (also called Hood, all islands there have more than one name
which makes it confusing sometimes). Most of the time we spent days visiting islands and nights
making distance between distant islands, so we got there in the morning.
Ours is the white ship. Only took 16 passengers, which was very practical.
As it's forbidden to bring foodstuffs ashore (you should even wash off the
shoes after visiting an island so you don't bring seeds to another), we went
back to the ship for lunch.
After lunch, we went ashore again. This time we went further from the beach and followed a path. There were small black and white wooden markers showing were the path was. Not allowed to step outside of it, nor on any roots or parts of plants inside it, nor on the nests of the blue footed boobies which were also right on the narrow path.
The general rule is you can walk on sand or lava on the protected island.
Furtherst from the beach was the waved albatros colony, which we came to late in the afternoon.
Next morning we woke up off Floreana and landed at Punta Cormorant.
From there we walked to mail barrel at Post Office Bay. Since this is an inhabited island, my recollection
is that there were not very strict restrictions on how you could walk around on it.
My notes aren't clear, but this is where I think I can claim to have "swimmed with sharks". Harmless and not very large. I didn't see them when swimming though, only from the ship.
Next day we spent on Santa Cruz, which has a very large population compared to the rest of the islands.
First we looked around town a bit.
Later in the morning we went to the research station and was guided around and shown both what they
do there, and shown the animals kept there (either for breeding or in the case of some giant turtles
not breeding since it was unclear which island they originally came from).
Young turtles in the breeding programme are kept there until they're large enough that they aren't at risk from being stepped on by a donkey, then released on the island they belong on.
For lunch, we went not to the ship, but in the other direction. On this island, with all the people and nature that's mostly not very sensitive, there are no special restrictions and of course also roads.
Away from the coast, you get higher and higher, and the vegetation and climate changes very much. It gets cooler and all green, instead of the bare sand and lava by the ocean.
Good conditions for many kinds of animal, but also for farming.
We also had dinner ashore in the evening. Then we didn't wear floatation vests when going from the ship to land in the ship's boat, but we had in they day (only times during the week).
The next day we spent at a really remote island, Genovesa, also known as Tower. (I think our guide mentioned it as Tower, so there was no consistent use of which language was used for the islands' names.)
It's different from many of the other islands in that it doesn't have much low beaches, so you go up paths to a higher plateu. Lots of different kinds of birds here.
I know we landed at Prince Philip's Steps and walked around quite a bit, but I think we
were also at Darwin Bay Beach.
Next day, after a night with rather rough sea we arrived at Fernandina.
Lots of iguanas and I remember the lava was blacker and thus presumably newer than most we had
seen.
Later the same day to the nearby Isabela where we landed at Tagus Cove.
We hiked up to a ridge and looked inland.
Large island, also with highlands, but very different from Santa Cruz in that it was all dry.
I don't remeber much about Santiago (also San Salvador or James).
But I think this is where we were took the ship's boat to look at a large penguin colony. However, it
turned out only four penguins were left, the rest were gone for the season.
Last island we visited before going back to the airport.
It's volcanic, like the others, but not mainly rocky but covered in a deep layer of volcanic ash.
As usual, when hiking inland you had to follow a path, here the path had turned into a deep ditch and the wardens
frequently move the path markers to spread out the damage.
Santiago as seen from Bartholomé
Photos from some of
my
other travels -
>Galapagos Islands<