South America and South Africa

The Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador and are one of the places of my trip I wanted to see for more than 25 years. When Charles Darwin visited the archipelago in 1832 the abundant wildlife triggered his theory about the development of the species, still a cornerstone of how we see our world today. I decided to make an 8-day-cruise to get the most out of this excursion. With USD 1,690 (incl. flights) not cheap but worth every penny. (Prior to the cruise I was somewhat nervous whether it would be not as great as I always thought but I enjoyed each single minute.)

The Galapagos Islands are about two flight hours west of Quito and Guayaquil and of volcanic origin. Since many of the volcanos, particularly on the more western parts, are still active it still changes its outlay. What makes the islands so special is their isolation so that many of the animal species are endemic. Lacking the contact with human beings prior to the islands’ discovery they have no fear of men as this is not encoded in their genetic masterplan. The National Park Galapagos makes only a very small part of the islands accessible for visitors leaving the greatest parts of the nature uncorrupted. Everything is very well organized and each boat has an exact itinerary which places on which date and time they can visit.

Our boat , the Floreana, had space for 16 passengers plus crew and the daily routine started with a breakfast at 7 a.m., thereafter came a visit of an island with our guide/guard Victor, as he explained and simultanuosly took care that nobody stayed behind or left the path, followed by snorkeling in the ocean. Thereafter lunch at noon, at 2 p.m. the second snorkeling followed by the second land excursion and dinner at 7 p.m.. During the night we usually navigated to the next island.

On our first afternoon Victor lead us to  a part of Isla Sta. Cruz, the main island albeit not the biggest island, where giant turtles are living in their natural habitat. The biggest of the turtles we saw had a shell with a diameter of almost a meter and was approx. 190 years old, i.e. it was already born, when Charles Darwin visited the islands. We could get as close as one meter until the turtles finally pulled their heads back into the shell.

The first full day started with one of the highlights – the visit of Isla Genovesa with its fantastic bird colonies. For your better understanding – I am absolutely no birdwatcher and could never understand those people who get excited when they see or hear birds. But this was really different: we disembarked the dinghies and started our walk – birds everywhere and not scared at all. We could get very close to the birds and they were not flying away but were even curious. I have never experienced something like that before. In the morning we were seeing mainly red-footed boobies and frigatebirds as well as some sealions, in the afternoon mainly nazca boobies and marine iguanas. Sealions and marine iguanas accompanied us during the entire week.

On the second day we went further to to Sullivan Bay on Isla Santiago where we made a walk over a 120 years old lava flow. Since I have seen lava flows before I was not too excited when Victor mentioned the itinerary for the morning but when I saw all the lava structures lying out like pieces of artwork quickly I changed my mind (see under photos “Structures”). In the afternoon we traveled to Isla St. Bartholomé with maybe the most famous view of the Galapagos archipelago.

The next day we went to a small island called Sombrero Chino given its shape. It was the first time we saw penguins, pelicans and hawks. Shortly thereafter we had a truely unique experience: we were entering a beach when a female sealion was giving birth to a sealion pup. Unfortunately the pup was lying upside-down so it was not brought alive, which was a very disturbing moment for all of us when we eventually realized this. Some comfort was that at least the mother did not die while giving birth. (As I am really sure that this is the closest I ever get of trying to be a National Geographic photographer I dedicated an entire page to this event on “photos” .)

The fourth day presenting the mid of our excursion brought a visit in Puerto Villamil, the main town of Isla Islabella, which is by far the biggest of the islands. so The town itself is not so interesting but some nice spots presenting wildlife,inter alias flamingos are close by.

On the fifth day we visited Isla Fernadina in the morning, which has a huge population of marine iguanas. It was also the first time that we saw flightless cormorans, a subspecies  of the cormoran family that lost its ability to fly but can swim excellently. And, as always, the odd sealions were there. The snorkeling at this island was extraordinary as we saw lots of seaturtles, white-tip reefsharks, were swimming with sealions and I also saw an octopus.  In the afternoon we were going to Tagus Cove on Isla Isabella where we saw a bigger population of blue-footed boobies.

The seventh day brought us to Bahia James on Isla Santiago in the morning and to Isla Rapida in the afternoon. I thought I already shot my ultimate photo of a sealion or a marine iguana but again, I had to pull out the camera to take pictures, this time for instance of a sealion mother nursing her pup .