Dave & Meredith’s Travel Blog

It’s probably not a surprise to you to learn that I am interested in wildlife conservation. On March 13, we got to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, which is in the town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. It is part of the Charles Darwin Foundation, which is committed to the conservation of the Galapagos Islands and its varied wildlife.

Although it’s clear to visitors of the Galapagos Islands that much of the wildlife is not afraid of humans (they just ignore you and go on about their business), there are many things which threaten them, and in fact, several species are now extinct or near extinction. For example, various populations of Giant Tortoise species were decimated by sailors and whalers coming through the islands in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Because tortoises can live for a year without food and water, unlike cows, goats, chickens, etc., they were taken as a long-lasting source of fresh meat for crews of ships that were out at sea for long periods at a time. Many whale populations were also severely impacted during this time.

At the Charles Darwin Research Station, we learned about the programs to help eradicate the threats to endemic wildlife (introduced species like cats, dogs, goats and insects are causing significant problems for birds and reptiles in the Galapagos). In addition, we got to see the Research Station’s programs-in-action to help repopulate various species of tortoises, iguanas and finches. We got up close and personal with giant tortoises which are being studied and many of whom are participating in breeding programs (we saw a few in the wild up in the highlands of Santa Cruz as well). We also got to see baby tortoises which are born at the Research Station (either through the breeding program, or through a program to collect eggs from the various species of Giant Tortoise on the different islands). The babies stay at the Research Station for 5 years until their shells are tough enough to withstand attacks from predators. Then each tortoise is released to the proper island that hosts its particular species to help repopulate it over time.

The visit was outstanding. If you are interested in learning more about the Charles Darwin Foundation, please click here.

Meredith and Dave with Giant Tortoise

I cannot get enough of iguanas. They are amazing. Before the trip, I was really looking forward to seeing both the Land Iguana and Marine Iguana of the Galapagos Islands. Imagine how happy I was to discover that the iguanas are different on the various islands!!! Different colors, different features!

Here are pictures of Marine Iguanas:

Many of the Marine Iguanas we saw had this Black-Grey Coloration

But the Marine Iguanas on Espanola are Red and Green!

And here are pictures of Land Iguanas:

A Fine Specimen From Isabela Island

The Male Land Iguanas on South Plaza Island have Bright Yellow Accents (and the Females love to Eat!)

Santa Fe Has its own Pale-Colored Species of Land Iguana

And our Naturalist Guide, Martin, saved the best part until near the end of the trip. On South Plaza Island (and only on South Plaza Island), a male Marine Iguana has mated with a female Land Iguana and produced hybrid offspring!!! AND WE SAW ONE!!! Here it is:

The Holy-Grail: Hybrid Land/Marine Iguana

It’s the same concept as a mule (which is a cross between a horse and a donkey). The offspring is sterile, so it won’t be able to reproduce. But honestly, how incredible is nature? Is anyone else as excited about this as I am???

I just posted pictures that I took in the Galapagos. I divided them into 3 separate galleries to make it a bit more manageable for you to view them. You can click on these links to view Gallery 1, Gallery 2, and Gallery 3. I’ve also created a new link at the top of the page named “Photo Galleries.” This gives you an easy, direct way to find galleries later instead of searching through our blog posts. Enjoy!

Seriously, I’m not sure what I ever did to him to extract such a horrible revenge. I mean, look at him - he’s so handsome and clearly powerful:

Anyway, I said I was sorry about 100 times and he finally let up. But I missed almost a whole day of activities because of him. Sheesh.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this topic. Lots of people are familiar with Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution. But I don’t think I can write about the Galapagos Islands without at least touching on this topic, because it was one of the places that sparked Darwin’s mind to come up with his groundbreaking theory (he visited the Islands for 5 weeks during his journey on The Beagle). To read more about his journey, click here.

One of the most important reasons why plants and animals evolved differently in the Galapagos Islands than they did in other places is because of the isolation of the Islands. In an earlier post, I talked about the volcanic “hot spot” that created these islands - that means that the islands were never connected to the mainland. In addition, they’re 600 miles away from the mainland, so some of the species that live in the Galapagos arrived by chance. For example, the Land Iguanas here probably arrived via a vegetation raft. Scientists believe just a small population of Land Iguanas arrived here (maybe even just one male and one female). Therefore, the resulting offspring retained the features of that small population (versus coming from a more varied, larger population), and years of isolation created a separate species from the original mainland iguana that arrived here. Scientists think that all the Marine and Land Iguanas that arrived here had a common ancestor, though of course now there are multiple species.

There are different species of the same genus of animals even within the Galapagos Islands depending on the island - different tortoises, different finches, different boobies, etc. Don’t know what a booby is? There are three main types of this sea bird found in the Galapagos. Blue-Footed, Nazca, and Red-Footed. The Red-Footed Booby even has both brown and white variations. Here are some pictures:

Blue-Footed Booby

Nazca Booby (My Favorite Booby)

Most Red-Footed Boobies have Brown Feathers (above), But a Few Have White Feathers (below)

Okay, that’s enough on evolution for today. In order to give equal time to a competing theory, please feel free to click here for information on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Most people visit the Galapagos by boat which is what we did. You’d think it would be a lazy, relaxing way to see things - just cruising around by boat. There’s where you’d be wrong. They pack your day. It was tough to find free time and when we went to bed, we were exhausted. I know, I know: trouble in paradise. At the beginning of our trip, the naturalist on board said that he’d know people were happy if he saw that they were really tired at night. I have seen that idea mentioned before but it was in the context of training dogs. I suspect there’s a connection in there somewhere.

Every day’s activities varied a bit and there was even a day or two in there that were very different (spending the day in the town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island for instance). That said, there was a “standard” set of things in most days. Here’s a typical one of those:

5:45: Wake-up call. Ugh. I paid to be treated like this? Seriously though, we got up early because the animals are not as active in the mid-day heat. It also meant we were usually first onto the island ahead of groups from other boats.

6:00: Breakfast. Food on board was very good. Nothing gourmet but good and plentiful. For certain, no one ever went hungry.

6:45: Ride the dinghy to an island for a 2-3 hour guided walk. Some dry landings, some wet. In addition to the passengers and crew, the two other people on board are a tour leader and a naturalist. Martin Loyola was our naturalist extraordinaire who grew up in the Galapagos. He would lead our walks and was a wealth of knowledge about all things having to do with plants, wildlife, and geology.

Martin explains features of a hawk skull.

9:30: Return to ship and prepare for snorkeling. This always felt great because even though it was still morning, we were always already extremely hot and sweaty. It was very hot and humid every day.

10:00: Snorkeling. The water was almost always warm and very clear. Martin led these as well and would frequently dive to the bottom to point things out.

12:00: Eat lunch and then rest. People usually spent time on the top deck looking for dolphins or whales.

3:00: Dinghy ride again to shore for another nature walk.

The group and a sea lion. Yes, you can get this close.

Waiting for the dinghy after a walk.

6:30: Back on the boat, the tour leader gives a lecture on relevant topics such as evolution, formation of the islands, local wildlife, history of people in the islands, etc. Our tour leader was Richard Parsons who was taking a break from running his lodge named Bellavista in the mainland cloud forest. Richard assisted Martin on every activity and, like Martin, he had very deep knowledge about anything we could ask him, told entertaining stories, and had a great sense of humor.

Richard and a Brown Pelican.

7:00: Dinner.

8:00: Martin gives a short briefing on activities and schedule for the following day.

8:30: Most people went to bed. I tended to stay up with one or two others to work on that day’s photographs.

Overnight: The boat typically navigates to a new island while people are in bed.