The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of 13 main islands (over 10 sq km) and 5 smaller (1 to 10sq m) plus 215 categorised as 'islets'. Only four of the islands are inhabited (the total population is about 28,000), the area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and 97% of the land area forms part of the National Park of Ecuador. There is a Marine Reserve that extends 40Nm around the islands making it one of the largest marine reserves in the world.
Lying approximately 1000 km off the Ecuadorean coast, the islands became infamous as an English Pirate base in the 17 and 18th Centuries but the biggest negative impact on the wildlife was the arrival of the Whalers in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries - not only did they decimate the whale population, but they unfortunately also discovered that giant tortoises were easy to catch and if turned on their backs could live for up to a year without food or water and thus became the perfect source of fresh meat. Each ship is believed to have loaded as many as 600 tortoises into their holds and during the whaling era approximately 200,000 giant tortoises were removed decimating the population and resulting in their extinction on several islands.
In the early years several attempts were made to colonise the islands, various business ventures attempted, mostly ending in failure, including the use of one island as a penal colony. It was Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle in 1835 that started the Scientific interest in the Archipelago - sadly in those days Scientist claiming species were on the verge of extinction felt it was acceptable to remove any specimens they could catch, this coupled with the introduction of goats, pigs. Rats, dogs, cats and apparently 490 species of insect have further devastated the indiginous flora and fauna.
Despite the negative impact of humans on the islands, visitors do bring much needed income and all activity on the islands is very closely monitored - much of the area can only be visited with a qualified local guide and there is a huge emphasis on restoration. The cost of permits alone for our yacht is just short of $2,000 - for this we can visit three specified anchorages only, and absolutely no independant yacht travel may be undertaken in these waters.
Our 900 mile journey from Panama to Galapagos took 6 days, instead of flying fish on the deck we found squid, when you removed them they left a black ink outline on the deck, but unfortunately for us the Galapagos sits within the area known as the Doldrums and although we set off in excellent sailing conditions the last two days of our trip were under engine.
Crossing the Equator - at 0030 hrs on 22/03/17 our instrument display switched from North to South
First sight of the Galapagos and a glassy calm sea
The first island we visited was San Cristobal - 6,000 people live on the island and it would seem they are well outnumbered by the Sea Lions.
They are masters of relaxation - we had been warned to take precautions against them climbing on our boat, and many locals put barbed wire around their boats to dissuade them from climbing onboard. They may be very cute, but they really do smell!
Like most of the wildlife on Galapagos, the Sea Lions are totally un afraid of people, visitors are requested to stay 2m away from any wild animals, not as easy as it sounds, they are so curious they come and have a look at us!
The Galapagos is the only known habitat for Marine Iguanas - we walked along the coast from the port in San Cristobal and were not disappointed. The iguanas were all around us, again un afraid of man they can be very hard to spot on the black volcanic rocks where they sunbathe after diving to depths of up to 9m for the sea weed or algae that they eat.
We did also see them swimming, they use their tails to power through the waves then clamber back up onto the rocks, disregarding the breaking surf, using their very well developed claws to grip the rocks.
We took a taxi tour to the highlands, first visiting El Junco Freshwater Lagoon where there were Frigate Birds circling and a great view down to the coast, and then it was on to La Galapaguera Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre. In the wild, only 1% of eggs survive to breeding age, but by collecting and carefully incubating the eggs not only can the Female:Male ratio be changed, but there is a 60% survival rate.
The tortoises spend their first three years in these pens, after which they are transferred to a more open area that more closely replicates their natural habitat. At about 5 years old they are released into the wild on the island they came from.
This tortoise was one of the many that roam round the breeding centre. Our Guide told us that he was probably about 70 years old
The final destination on our taxi tour was the beautiful Puerto Chino Beach. There had been a huge rainstorm which had caused a flood a couple of days prior to our visit which had washed much of the sand away but it was still a lovely place for a swim and picnic lunch
It would be interesting to see if the sand returns to its previous level
The big excitement of Puerto Chino beach was our first sighting of a Blue Footed Boobie. They are also found in mainland Ecuador, not just the Galapagos but they are very striking and have very cute baby blue feet.
A Blue Footed Boobie
As we approached San Cristobal when we first arrived we passed close to Kicker Rock which is considered one of the prime Scuba sites on the island. We went on a dive and again were not disappointed - there were huge schools of fish swirling round us, a sea lion was hunting them and came flying past within a meter or so of us, others were just interested in us and came over to have a close look. Although the visibility was not great (not much more than 5 metres) and there was strong and unpredictable current which made things challenging we did see several varieties of shark: Hammerheads, Galapagos, White Tip and Black Tip which was a new excitement for us.
A Hammerhead shark emerging from the glooom
This really is only a taster of what San Cristobal has to offer, but unfortunately for us our visit here coincided with the visit by the Oyster World Rally, approximately 30 additional large yachts were arriving in the anchorage and the place was rapidly filling up. We decided to get ahead of them and head for Santa Cruz, the second island we are permitted to visit, in order to secure a place in the anchorage there before it becomes over crowded.
The internet link here is incredibly slow, so all the photos have been reduced to 10% of their original size in order to publish them - this will no doubt be the same throughout Galapagos, so the photos will have to remain fuzzy for now.
Great blog, nice information thanks to shared this.
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