A Step Off The Beaten Path

“Life…finds a way” (Jurassic Park, 1993).  No where on Earth is this more true than the Galapagos Islands. Sitting atop a molten column, volcanic activity slowly formed this archipelago that sits 850 miles due west of the Ecuadoran coast. And over the course of millions of years, somehow life took hold within the inhospitable holes and crevasses of lava rock.

I’ve always been fascinated by the Galapagos islands and it has been a dream of mine to take the kids to these islands and experience them. At the same time, I didn’t really “know” what they would be like. Rather, it was more the “idea” of the Galapagos that I found so compelling. So expectations were sky high. And despite this, the Islands still blew us away.

We originally tried to book an 8 day/7 night boat cruise of the islands from Quito. But that trip was mysteriously cancelled. So we switched gears and booked a flight to the island of Santa Cruz for 2 weeks, figuring that we could just figure out how best to see the islands after we arrived. Santa Cruz stakes the claim as the most populated island (20,000 residents) and is a popular embarkation point for cruises and day trips. Given how expensive everything is in the Galapagos, we also hoped to take advantage of last minute pricing for boat trips. However, we spent our whole first day visiting various travel agencies and struggled to find longer boat trips (that weren’t ridiculously priced) with available space for a family of 5. That last condition raised more than a few eyebrows. Apparently, it’s a bit of a rarity to find families traveling here (we saw 1 family during our 2 weeks on the Islands and they had no plans to take a boat cruise or even to ferry across to other islands.) Finally, at the end of the day, luck smiled upon us and we wound up booking 2 shorter cruises with great itineraries and top quality naturalist guides. Of course, we didn’t know just how good we had it until we finished the tours.

Cruise 1: La Pinta – visiting the eastern and southern islands of San Cristobal, Espanola, then back to Santa Cruz. La Pinta spoiled us in a big way: 32 passengers (2 groups of 16 people) even though it holds 48, fine dining, a room with 3 beds for the kids to share and a huge room for Lori and me!, and a terrific naturalist guide! Best of all, I never once felt seasick on this boat.

La Pinta

I think the kids have grown sick of us. They independently sought the company of others at every turn (all of our fellow travelers spoke English). We would sit down at our dining table only to find one or all of them sitting at another table!

Our first and best close encounter with Sea Lions on San Cristobal

Blue footed boobies, with a baby, at Punta Pitt on San Cristobal

The elusive red footed boobies at Punta Pitt, San Cristobal island

Perhaps the highlight of the first cruise was a hike to a cliff edge on Espanola island. Here we found nesting waved albatross (see video of their courtship dance below), colorful marine iguanas, the Galapagos hawk, and blue footed boobies, all within easy viewing distance. All the pictures and videos from our trip have been taken with my iPhone.

This cliff edge on Espanola island was an ideal viewing point

Galapagos hawk, the largest predator in the Islands (and a marine iguana) – Espanola Island

The waved albatross in flight over a blow hole on Espanola island

Right as we arrived at the cliff edge, we witnessed the courtship dance of the waved albatross!

My personal favorite! The Espanola marine iguana. Only on Espanola can you find them with red-green-black coloring.

These iguanas defied all odds by adapting more than any other animal I can think of in the Galapagos. I don’t want to geek out on everyone, but take a moment to consider how the marine iguana evolved from the land iguana. It’s a vegetarian, but it initially had nothing to eat, except algae. So it taught itself to swim in the ocean to access the algae, learning to hold its breath and to stay in the water for an hour. Keep in mind that this is a reptile with no ability to regulate body temperature! The shape of the tale became flatter (like a fish tail) to enable it to swim better, the shape of its head became more round so that it could better access and eat the algae, and it grew larger claws in order to better climb and hold onto the lava rocks. Also, with all the extra salt from its new diet, it developed a special gland to extract the excess salt and then sneeze it out of its body. And get this, during an El Nino, when the water warms to the point that no algae grows, the marine iguana extends its life by reabsorbing its own skeleton, thus shrinking its body by up to 20%. Talk about the ultimate survivor . . .

Anna and Daddy team up for a kayaking outing off Espanola island.

A view of Kicker Rock from the boat at sunset

Back on Santa Cruz, we spent time visiting the Darwin Research Station and other sites on the island.

Feeding time at Darwin Research Station. The two in the back are in disagreement over who should have first dibs on the food. These are saddleback giant tortoises, the shape of which gave the islands their name, Galapagos.

How cool is that? On our way to visit turtles at El Chato ranch, we need to be careful not to run them over.

Inside a lava tunnel at El Chato ranch

Los Gemelos – the twins – a set of two 30 meter deep sunken craters in the highlands of Santa Cruz island

Tortuga Bay!  Between the beach and the bay is a mangrove with a colony of marine iguanas. Gorgeous!

Anna and Daddy take time to learn how to make traditional ceviche at a local restaurant. Can’t wait to make this when we get back home – So good!

Then it was back on the boat for Cruise 2:  Nemo III exploring Isabella, Fernandina, and Santiago Islands. The Nemo III is a 16-person sailing catamaran. Once again, our fellow passengers were fun and lovely people, the food was terrific, and our naturalist guide was outstanding. I cannot stress enough how much more meaningful and enjoyable a boat cruise is when you have a knowledgeable and friendly guide. Well done, Jairo!

We started with a 12-hour navigation around the southern edge of Isabella island. Despite regular doses of Dramamine and a useless bracelet I wore on my wrist, I suffered from seasickness for hours until we reached the calmer waters on the western coast of the island. Fortunately, everyone else did just fine. 🙂

The less evolved relative to the marine iguana, we saw this land iguana on Isabella island

Another Galapagos hawk sighting Fernandina Island – This bird is the largest predator in the Islands.

A sea lion, different from the Galapagos sea lion (known here as a sea wolf). These guys are from Antarctica and have more fat and fur.

Evan feeling comfortable with boat living

Somewhere along the way, we’ve seen Evan transform himself in several meaningful ways. He’s now a little social bug who easily engages strangers in conversation. During this boat trip, he discovered a love of photography (he regularly “borrowed” the camera of a fellow traveler), and perhaps most importantly, he has become a reader!

A little free time after lunch and what do the kids choose to do? Yep, I’m the proud father of 3 bookworms!

Flightless cormorant decided to nest on the stairs leading to the trail on Isabela island. She never moved. The Galapagos boasts the only cormorant in the world that can’t fly. The wings actually devolved over time! But boy can they swim and dive!

A huge group of marine iguanas on Fernandina island. They were everywhere!

So is it a monk praying or an gorilla texting? Santiago Island

The boat life seems to agree with Gage as well

Blue footed boobies hanging out, feet on full display. Those with deeper blue coloring are the females. Santiago Island

More good luck off of Santiago Island. We saw the courtship dance of the blue footed boobies. The female is looking for a male with the perfect feet. So he shows them to her in the form of a dance. That’s the male “hooting”.

Sharing a moment with my girls as our cruise comes to the end. Here we are circumnavigating Daphne Major Island.

The Galapagos truly are enchanted islands. Each island has something unique and special to offer. There’s so much to explore! Still, I feel satisfied with all that we were able to see and do here. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

On a more distressing note, we’ve heard disturbing news that the government recently passed a law allowing foreign investment in the islands. In so doing, this law may give the go ahead for a nine-acre golf course, spa hotels for the super-rich and construction in areas that have, until now, been protected (the government launched a prospectus in 2014 for these very projects for San Cristobal island). So if the Galápagos are on your bucket list, you may want to plan a trip soon before these still-tranquil Pacific islands change beyond all recognition.

We spent our final days on Santa Cruz relaxing, visiting Garrapatero Beach (normally the sight of pink flamingos, but with the current drought, no where to be seen), washing laundry, and hanging out with the good folks at the Maidith Hotel. Such an fun-loving family with a great life story.

Saying goodbye to our new friends at Maidith Hotel, the best hotel on Santa Cruz

It took a whole day to travel back to Quito, thanks to a cancelled flight. But we made it back to stay with our friends (see previous post) in north Quito for a few days before we took the 3 hour bus south to the town of Banos. What a charming little town this is! I’ll share more about it in the next post. Speaking of which, keep your eyes peeled for posts on the Galapagos from the kids (coming soon!)