Cruising the Galapagos

My friend Alison (from Columbia) spent a week studying Spanish in Cuenca, then met me in the communities. We spent a week in Chacanceo while I worked, then flew to Galapagos for 10 days. We spent the first days by ourselves, visiting local beaches and taking short hikes. My first impressions were of the difference in flora from the mainland, and I guess from what I expected of the islands. Given the amazing fauna, I was expecting lush greenery, like a jungle. Instead, it was more like a moonscape, with a few strange plants. The islands are all volcanic, and relatively young. As such, there is little soil, mostly just rock. So pretty much all that grows is a strange, huge species of cactus that looks like a cartoon tree, and a white barked tree that at least when we were there had no leaves, so looked (basically) dead. Those two things covered much of the landscape on the islands. It was bizarre, but after I realized it wasn't that all the trees were dead, I grew to appreciate the novelty of the plant life.

Our second day we went to a bay where there were supposed to be flamingos. There was a path to a marsh where it was pretty clear the flamingos were _supposed_ to be. There was ONE, and it seemed they had planted the lonesome guy there so the flamingo observatory would not be mis-named. As diligient bird watchers we observed various flamingo behaviors: standing. preening. sleeping. and, the most exciting...eating! or at least digging around in the mud for something. But, it was a real, live, bright pink flamingo. I wanted to give it a lawn ornament companion, just to it wouldn't be alone.

Galapagos was a lot less developed and touristy than I expected. For example, in the height of the tourist season, we were the only people at the flamingo beach, which is one of only a couple of places to visit on the main island. It was at the end of a long, gravelly road, and there was barely a sign to indicate its presence, much less anyone selling anything, even water or food. I think I expected it to be more like the places that cruise ships stop, where you can't walk 5 feet without running into someone hawking an armful of jewelry or a tray of rum drinks.

After the days by ourselved, we took a tour boat with 14 other passengers for an 8 day cruise. Most of the islands are not inhabited by humans and have no developed infrastructure. Our boat made a circle around the main island, stopping at many smaller ones. You jump off near the shore (sometimes onto a rock, if the shoreline allows) and then walk around the island. There are marked trails to keep you from trampling the delicate plants or stepping on birds' nests. Most days we spent some time walking around and some time snorkling. Each island is home to different animals, some found on no other place on earth, even on other islands of Galapagos. As advertised, the animals are amazing. Meter-long sharks, sea lions, seals, giant tortises, penguins, all swimming right around us. On land, various kinds of iguanas, flamingos, blue-footed boobies, albatross...a million birds.

Our boat carried 16 passengers in tiny 2-person rooms, as well as 7 crew members, including a naturalist guide. Alison and I were the only 2 passengers from the US, several were from Europe, and 7 from Israel(!). I'd never met Israelis while traveling in Central America, but here there are many, all young people, many traveling for 6-9 months after their 2 year military service. It was really interesting to hear about their lives, so different from ours, some living on kibbutz, and all serving in the army. Alison and I seemed to be the most outgoing, trying to learn everyone's names and a little about their places of origin. (And which ones didn't like sweets, so I could pilfer extra desserts). Most people kind of stuck to the person they were traveling with, or other people from their country, but everyone was friendly. We tried to mobilize a crowd to go dancing the nights we were in port (rather than sailing overnight between islands). We had little luck rousing others, but had a good time dancing anyway. There were many groups of Ecuadorian middle and high school students on school trips, and the first night we went to the bar, it was full of 14 year olds, rocking out! After their 10pm curfew the place was pretty empty. The music was latin pop, but the music videos playing on the wall-size screen were 1980s Boy George and George Micheal types. A surreal combination.

While we were at sea, often our boat would be followed by giant black frigate birds. The cook would sometimes throw food out the kitchen window, and they would catch it on the fly. We watched them from the sun deck on top of the boat. They could keep up with us without flapping their wings at all, just gliding along on the wind currents. Sometimes they seemed to be playing, or fighting, and they would dive at one another, narrowly missing our boat. Indeed, one jettisoned a digestive load during a close overhead sweep, and I was hit! Also from the sundeck, we watched giant manta rays jumping out of the water. They were several feel across, and leapt high into the air before splashing back into the sea.

My favorite snorkeling was at a place called Post Office Bay. There were many giant tortises cruising the shallows, and their enormity and gracefulness underwater was amazing. There were also many kinds of sea urchins and brightly colored fish. The water was freezing, and we all used wetsuits, but even so, we only snorkeled in hour-long stretches before the cold was too much. The sea lions were fun too, but a little unnerving. Of all the animals, they seemed the least disturbed by the human influx, and would curiously approach you both on land and in the water. They are so much more agile than we are in the water, and they would swim right at you, narrowly missing you to swim underneath (and out of your range of vision). I think they were just playing, or checking us out, but it was strange to be so close to a wild animal. Post Office Bay is so named because before there was any kind of mail service in Galapagos, people left letters in a box there, in hopes that someone sailing near their letter's destination would carry it along. People still leave postcards there, and I collected several headed to the US, including one destined to my tiny hometown of Forest Grove.

I didn't suffer any sea sickness until the third day. We had a really rough night at sea, the boat rocking back and forth so hard we had to hold on to keep from falling out of bed. One motion sickness super patch soon had me in fine form though, and I didn't get sich again the rest of the trip. Pretty much everyone was taken down by that night at sea, and I shared my patches with a couple of boat-mates, one of whom was hooked and kept coming back for more. Alison too became addicted, and suffered withdrawal (nausea) when she took hers off on land several days later. Strong stuff! It was funny to be on land after so much time on a rocking boat. Periodically, we both felt things were rocking for several days afterward.

In a moment of extreme confidence (and perhaps some desperation), Alison convinced me to give her a haircut on board. I have often cut her hair, but in this case, the only scissors we had were on her Swiss Army knife. And on top of that, the boat was rocking heavily. The boat was pretty much rocking heavily the whole time we were on it. Anyway, I did it, and it actually came out ok. The one benefit was, it was quite windy on the sun deck, so all the little hair pieces just blew away and no clean up was required. If my public health career founders, perhaps I have a future in ship board hairstyling.

My favorite island was one that had a giant 100 year old lava flow. The rock was pitch black on the surface, and billowed in beautiful patterns over kilometers of terrain. There were patched that looked bubbly, patches that looked like sponge, and patches that looked like spider webs. In crevaces, you could see layers of 5 different colors, depending on the concentrations of minerals. The only things growing as far as the eye could see were three small cacti. Our guide, who had been working the islands for 30 years, said those same three cacti had been there the whole time.

My favorite piece of natural history I learned from the Kurt Vonnegat novel "Galapagos," which Alison brought along to read. The many species of Galapagos finches were key to Darwin's development of his theory of evolution. The finches fill distinct ecological niches that in other environments are filled by other animals. There seem to be more varieties of finch than there are islands. For example, there is a finch that gets grubs out of trees like a woodpecker, one that slurps ants like an ant-eater, and one that has a beak that can crack open nuts. Darwin theorized the finches evolved in the ways they did to take advantage of different kinds of food, but all came from one common finch ancestor. They are poor imitations of the animals that fill those niches in other environments, but those other animals weren't around to compete. Fascinating. Go Darwin.

In sum, Galapagos was indeed amazing. But I definitely felt the press of humanity on a delicate ecosystem. More and more people go there every year. Even though everyone has to be with a guide, people still get too close to the animals, trying to capture the perfect picture. Even if they don't run or fly away, to me many seemed very nervous. Any the boat crew who had been around for a long time said there were fewer of some animals than there used to be. It's a delicate balance, because many people want to see a place that is unique on earth. And of course the tourism revenue is very welcomed by Ecuadorians. But, the more people who go, the more precarious the survival of the ecosystem. I'm not sure of the best resolution. But, I feel fortunate to have been able to go, and I hope a good part of the hefty price tag of the trip will fund research and preservation of the environment.