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B
orn of Fire, the Galapagos
Islands are tips of submarine
volcanoes, a place where evolution can be observed In-Situ.
Hundreds of miles from mainland Ecuador, animals and
plants set adrift have somehow found and
colonised the desert islands. Floating rafts of
vegetation, wind, air currents and oceanic drift
all helped this colonisation.
Birds lost from migratory routes landed
there, and sea birds carried seeds and invertebrates. Animals came from North, Central
and South America, and Caribbean, set adrift
in the ocean currents. Californian sea lions
and land birds came from North America,
while pink flamingos and Darwin finches
came from the Caribbean. Land iguanas, giant
tortoises, pelicans, cormorants and boobies
arrived from South America. Fur sea lions and
penguins travelled from the Antarctic.
Then there was Charles Darwin, the most
famous of all visitors to the Galapagos’. He
arrived aboard the HMS Beagle, on September
15, 1835. The HMS Beagle spent five weeks
in the archipelago during which the 26 year
old naturalist visited Chatham, Charles,
Albemarle and James Islands. He spent 19
days on shore collecting and observing flora
and fauna in this ‘living laboratory of evolution’. In 1859, twenty five years after his voyage
on the Beagle, Darwin released the first edition
of his work ~ ‘The Origin of Species by Means
of Natural Selection’ which sparked a scientific
and religious revolution.
Our luxury motor yacht; the ‘Letty’, lay off
Fernandina Island in the Western Galapagos’,
a place where the islands are bathed in the
colder nutrient rich waters of the Cromwell
Current. The Ship’s Captain; Wilson, took us
near shore and equiped with mask and snorkel, we slipped into the cool green waters.
Marine iguanas scampered on shore and
within seconds we were eyed by a huge green
The Galapagos
PHOTO: NANCY NEHRING
‘Islands of Fire’
Isthmus of Bartolome and Pinnacle Rock
are the eroded remains of tuff cones. Isla
Bartolome, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
The Galapagos Islands are a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED
BY TONY KARACSONYI
turtle. This place is alive, I though, as a vast
school of black-striped salema fishes buzzed
past. Marine iguanas swam on the surface,
trailing prehistoric tails. On the rocks there
were Galapagos penguins, flightless cormorants and colourful Sally Lightfoot crabs.
Fernandina is the youngest of the Galapagos
archipelago ~ less than 700,000 years old. The
hot spot theory held by geologists today says
that there are stationary areas of intense heat
in the earth’s mantle that cause the crust to
melt and give rise to volcanoes. Now and
again, there’s a build up of pressure and a volcanic eruption, producing lava.
In 1968, the caldera of Fernandina changed
dramatically when it’s floor, a block, two kilometres round, fell by 350 metres. The caldera
was clouded in choking dust and the crater
lake disappeared. Some 2000 white-cheeked
pintail ducks and land iguanas just disappeared.
Fernandina is still the most volcanically
active island in the archipelago with a dome
shaped cone rising to almost 1500 metres. It’s
caldera is now 900 metres deep and 6 kilometres round.
The Galapagos archipelago consists of 13
major islands, 6 minor islands and 49 smaller
rock formations, spread over 17,000 square
miles. These equatorial islands, volcanic
mountains, erupted above the Pacific Ocean,
600 miles West of the Ecuador. They first broke
through the sea floor, 7 - 9 million years ago,
and still show volcanic activity ~ 7 volcanoes
have erupted in the past 15 years.
The Galapagos Islands sit on top of
the Nazca Plate, close to the junction with
the Cocos Ridge. The plates shift along the
Galapagos Rift and the East Pacific Rise, which
is making the islands to move South and
Eastward at more than 7 centimetres per year.
The Eastern islands are older than the Western
ones. Fernandina and Isabela, are the youngest, less than 1 million years old.
“Another feature of these isles is their emphatic uninhabitableness. It is deemed fit for ...
the jackel itself; ... but the encantadas refuse to harbour even the outcasts of the beasts.
Man and wolf alike disown them. Little but reptile life is here found; tortoises, lizards, ... and
that strangest anomaly of outlandish nature, the iguano. No voice, no lo, no howl is heard;
the chief sound of life here is a hiss”
—Herman Melville, from las Encantadas, 1841
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Fur Seals
Along the beach we saw fur seal lions playing.
This species was close to extinction not long ago.
“The unique
wildlife which
has evolved on
the Galapagos
Islands makes
it one of the
globe’s truely
wild places!”
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We stepped ashore at Punta Espinosa, which
means Spiny Point in Spanish. This place is surrounded by six volcanoes on Isabela Island
which lies across the Bolivar Channel. Stepping
ashore onto black lava, from our panga (the
local name for a small dinghy), Sally Lightfoot
crabs scuttled on the green algae. A pile of
marine iguanas lay sunning themselves on the
lava. As their body temperatures increased,
they made their way to the ocean to feed, on
algae. A whale skeleton lay on sand and an inlet
had flightless cormorants.
The flightless cormorants flapped their
short wings. Sally Lightfoot crabs and marine
iguanas lay all around. Sea lions were played in
the shallows, and far views of volcanoes made
for a fantastic vista. Our natural history guides;
Harry Jimenez (alias Loco Harry) and Jose Luis
Castillo (alias Pepe) were full of information,
making the trips very enjoyable.
The islands climate is greatly determined
by the ocean currents. In the cooler dry season
~ July to Dec, the Humboldt Current keep the
islands much cooler than you would expect.
During the warmer, wet season ~ Jan to June,
there’s little rain on the coasts.
The colder waters of Fernandina and
Isabela Island are superb for dolphin and
whale watching ~ striped dolphins, common
dolphins, spinner dolphins and pilot whales.
No where have I had such amazing encounters
with dolphins as in the Galapagos’.
There must have been 70 dolphins, some
which joined the bow of our boat. Jumping
into the ocean, I cleared the bubbles in
my mask to see dolphins all around
and a 2 metre Galapagos shark.
So sharks do swim
with
dolphins!
Dolphins
were
zooming in to see
us, often in pairs, peeling off when 2 metres
away. The sheer excitement of being in the
ocean with so many dolphins, was one of life’s
best experiences.
With reluctance, we left the dolphins, and
headed over to the island to scuba dive. We
swam along an underwater cliff with an entourage of sea lions and hundreds of Pacific creole
fish, until we reached a point where 2 currents
collided. Here is saw a scalloped hammerhead
shark, eagle ray, green turtle and no less than 5
white- tip reef sharks. The funniest thing was
that the sea lions were playing tag with the reef
sharks. The sea lions were diving down and
chasing, then nipping the shark’s tail. Whenever
there was a nip, the shark would flick it’s tail.
The fish life in the Galapagos is fascinating and many of the fish look like overgrown
African cichlids (popular freshwater aquarium
fishes). Remarkable fish were Pacific creole
fish ~ looks like a fusilier, Mexican hogfish
~ hump- headed with long streaming fins,
guinea fowl puffer ~ yellow puffer fish, and
Galapagos garden eels ~ named ‘Anguila Jardin
de Galapagos’ in Spanish.
The marine iguanas on Espanola Island,
called Christmas Iguanas, are brightly coloured
with spashes of pink and green. Each island has
something different to offer. At Genovesa Island
we anchored in Darwin Bay, an ancient caldera.
Here we climbed a bluff named the ‘tower’, to
see sea birds nesting in the salt bush. There
were red-footed boobies, red-billed tropic
birds, swallow tail gulls, storm petrels
and magnificent frigatebirds
sporting bright red inflatable throat pouches.
Later we cooled
off with a snorkel
and went shark
spotting. We’ll
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DISCOVERY CHARTER
More Information
About The Fleet
The Letty is one of 3 identical signature
motor yachts; the M/Y Eric, Flamingo
and Letty, which travel together
through the Galapagos Islands. They
are 83ft long by 24 ft wide, cruising
at 10 knots. Double balanced keels
give maximum stability and they are
ecologically equipped for noise reduction and fuel efficiency. They cater for
20 guests, with 10 crew including two
naturalist guides. Each motor yacht carries highly sophisticated navigational
equipment.
How To Get There
If travelling from the USA, fly to Quito
in Ecuador, then to the Galapagos
Islands. TACA Airlines flies to Ecuador,
via Costa Rica. Make sure to check in 3
hours early for your connecting flights
to Quito.
How To Book
Galapagos Network
www.ecoventura.com
[email protected]
(305) 262 6264
Health & Safety;
Malaria is not a problem in the
Galapagos Islands, if cruising, but if
you’re venturing onto the Amazon
rainforest, Ecuador, take anti-malarials.
While staying in Quito, always take
a taxi back to your motel, at night.
Currency is in US Dollars. There are
excellent hotels to stay in Quito, such
as the Mercure Hotel.
Information
To charter this trip or any yacht you
see in this issue of YV&C, please
contact any of the recommended
charter brokers listed on page 8
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the Galapagos Shark’s spotted us and circled
a metre away. While none of us was really
scared?, I did hear a few nervous shrieks, and
husbands were thrust in front of the placid
shark by anxious wives. All good fun! There
were lots of lovely fish such as giant damsel
fish, razor surgeonfish, morish idol, bumphead parrotfish, Cortez rainbow wrasse, but
the sharks were the absolute highlight!
A beach landing at Genovesa Island delighted us with sea lion cubs suckling on the beach,
and red-footed boobies with fluffy white chicks.
At Santiago Island, we landed on a black
sand beach with sea lions, great for swimming.
On land, after a hike past old salt mine relics,
we came across an area of grottoes i.e.deep
pools with fur seal lions playing. This species
was close to extinction not long ago. Along the
beach, we watched marine iguanas, American
oystercatchers and lava lizards.
On Bartolome Island we took the summit trail past splatter cones to a spectacular
lookout, with views of Sullivan Bay. At Isabela’
we climbed to a crater lake, then onto a cone
with superb views of lava fields. Exploring
Tagus Cove by panga, we saw blue-footed
boobies, sea lions, Galapagos hawk, pelicans
and Galapagos penguins. Tagus Cove, adorned
somewhat controversially, in graffiti, dating
back to the 1800’s, abounds with marine life.
At Cerro Dragon, we saw endemic land iguanas, once part of ‘Darwin Station’s breeding program. Growing to 0.9 metres and 11 kilograms,
they eat the fleshy leaves of the opuntia cactus,
scraping off the sharp spines before swallowing.
Wild dogs killed close to 600 land iguanas on
Santa Cruz Island. With 60 iguanas left, Darwin
Station and Park Service rescued the survivors
and took them to the breeding station. Once
the feral dogs were removed, the iguanas were
returned. Caribbean flamingos can be spotted
on Cerro Dragon’s salt water lagoon.
Off San Cristobal Island we cruised the majestic Kicker Rock, named ‘Leon Dormido’ There were
green turtles everywhere, sea lions lolling near
shore and red-billed tropic birds in the sky.
At Santa Cruz, near the bustling tourist town
of Puerto Ayora, we toured the Charles Darwin
Research Station and the Galapagos National
Park headquarters. Here we met ‘Lonesome
George’. George was found in 1971 by wardens
from the Galapagos National Park, hunting feral
goats on Pinta Island. The last reported sighting of giant tortoises on Pinta was in 1906.
Scientists took ‘Lonesome George’ to the
captive breeding program at the Charles Darwin
Research Station. The search for a mate began,
but has’nt been found to date. George was
once moved to Isabela’s Wolf Volcano, together
with two females. He was in high spirits and
some ‘coupling’ took place, but neither female
produced young. Edward Louis, a geneticist at
the Henry Doorley Zoo in Nebraska, scans and
analyses tortoise DNA from all over the globe in
search of a match for George.
During the 1500 to 1800’s ~ sailors, seafarers and colonists had killed 150,000 to 200,000
giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands.
In the Santa Cruz highlands we visited large
pit craters, named ‘Los Gemelos’, lava tubes,
and watched giant tortoises feeding on a ranch.
The giant tortoises love eating the fallen figs.
This ranch is home to vermillion flycatchers,
large-billed flycatchers, and Darwin finches.
On Espanola Island we watched Christmas
iguanas, sea lions and blue-footed boobies, living in harmony, near an active ocean blowhole.
The unique wildlife which has evolved on
the Galapagos Islands, together with it’s fascinating history, makes it one of the globe’s truely wild places! It’s surely, one of life’s greatest
experiences. YVC
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About the Writer
Tony Karacsonyi is a professional marine photographer who has been recognised globally for his
exciting images. Marine photography has taken Tony
to some of the world’s great places such as Papua
New Guinea’s: Siassi, Trobriand and D’Entrecasteaux
Islands,Tonga, Great Barrier Reef, Sabah, Ningaloo
Reefs and Australia’s Coral Sea. In 1998, he was
awarded with the prestigious Australian Geographic
“Photographer of the Year”, for photography on giant
cuttlefish and won several international awards,
including a ‘runner up’ position in the “Wildlife
Photographer of The Year” award in London, during
1996, 1997, 1998.
[email protected]
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