GALAPAGOS ISLANDS Part 1 - What we learnt about the Archipelago

Lat: 00 53.7S / Long: 089 36.9W

Lat: 00 44.9S / Long: 090 18.4W

The Galapagos Islands were first discovered in the 16^th century. In 1535 Tomas de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama, discovered the islands by chance on his way to Peru when currents pushed his ship off course. Arriving on the volcanic, stone covered beach and terrified by the sight of the perfectly camouflaged marine iguanas, he thought that he had arrived directly in hell.

The area of the archipelago comprises a length of 430 km/270 miles (from south to north) and over 200 km/124 miles (from west to east). The thirteen main islands and countless other islets float on one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, the Nazca Plate, the last eruption being in 2004.

The stone covered islands looked like hell to the bishop… 

…And the Marine Iguanas looked like the devils creatures. They have adapted to their arid environment and seek their food under water. As cold-blooded animals, after the dive they need to bask in the sun to get back the right body temperature. They are perfectly camouflaged…

… and friendly amongst each other

It was not until 1835 that their most famous visitor, sailing on board HMRS “The Beagle” arrived: The English naturalist Charles Darwin. It was during his stay that he got major inspiration for his revolutionary theories on evolution (On the Origin of Species).

While the Galapagos Islands are exemplary how nature adapts to its environment, according to Darwin it also relies on specific environmental conditions to survive – conditions that the first inhabitants of the islands unknowingly endangered and is now a big task of the Galapagos Conservation Trust as well as for the Galapagos National Park with its 500 guides who looks after 93 percent of the whole of Galapagos (only the remaining seven percent are inhabited and cultivated).

Goats, donkeys and cats brought along by the first settlers, when coming in the wild, endangered for example the population of the giant tortoises. The domestic animals ate up the plants, which were the basic nourishment of the giant tortoises, wild cats dug up the eggs that they lay in the ground while wild dogs diminished colonies of iguanas. Meanwhile all these natural predators are now strictly controlled.

The Galapagos Tortoises weigh up to 300 kilo/186 pounds and can reach the age of 180 years, so maybe a few of them have actually met Charles Darwin personally?

Some of the many different species varying from island to island have nearly being extinct especially by the seafarers and fishermen who took them onboard by the hundreds as convenient food because the Galapagos tortoises can survive up to a year without eating or drinking.

Now there are tortoises breeding centers on some of the islands, where the eggs are being attended as well as the hatched tortoises (as their shell is still very soft and therefore vulnerable). 

The most prominent of the tortoises is Lonesome George. - About 100 years old and in good health, weighing 90kg (200 pds or 14st 2lb), George was a native of Pinta, an isolated northern island of the Galápagos. By the late 1960s, it was noted that the tortoise population on the rarely visited island had dwindled close to extinction. George, discovered in 1972, was immediately brought into captivity at the ‘Charles Darwin Research Center’ on the island of Santa Cruz. He is now the very last specimen of its kind. Even after an intensive worldwide search no other female of his type was found.

“El Solitario George” (as the natives call him): The loneliest tortoise in the world. 

Scientists have been trying to get George to mate since 1993, when they introduced two female tortoises of a different subspecies from the neighboring island of Isabela into his pen, but he has been in no hurry to procreate. A while ago, the Center had a woman from Switzerland who manually stimulated old George’s peter and collected his sperm to study it. Maybe it helped:

George astounded conservationists a few years ago by mating for the first time in the 36 years he has been in captivity. But unfortunately the eggs laid by one of his female companions turned out to be infertile. So poor George will probably remain the last of his kind.

These two didn’t have George’s problems… The tortoises start having sex at about the age of 22 and remain having it up to the age of about 140 years. When they’ re at it they take between two to six hours.

Not only the Galapagos fauna is facing existential problems, but also the flora. The introduction of quickly growing plants as the guava fruit tree or the blackberry bushes endanger the endemic plants and are almost impossible to get rid of.

Lava Cactus the first plants to show up after a volcanic eruption. 

Purely endemic: The Darwin Bush 

Not endemic and dangerous: The Angels Trumpet – The powder of the dried flower has hallucinogenic effects. Criminal minds on the mainland use it to drug people and then rob them.

Surely the Galapagos Archipelago is one of the best-preserved places in the world and every visitor faces very strict regulations (first measured were taken in 1959).

But the increasing tourism is an undeniable fact (in 2011 there were about 200.000 visitors) and a challenge as such which should not go out of certain boundaries.

We had the impression that most of the money made by tourism goes out of the Archipelago to the mainland. It should be reinvested into the islands for more ecological systems for example to save the vast amount of rain water and by doing this to secure that the islands have enough fresh water.

The Galapagos Archipelago lays about 1000 km/631 miles off the east coast of South America at the equator. When Zefiro crossed it, indeed it was a special event on board because this called for the old custom of the ‘seamen crossing ceremony’. Traditionally, it is always due when a crewmember crosses the equator for the first time. It is a baptism, in which Neptune, god of the sea, and not a priest plays the main role.

Equatorial baptism: This time it was skipper Peter’s and Regine’s turn. Deckhand Jeri was our formidable Neptune

The baptized are first made dirty (for skipper Peter it was cocktail sauce, while Regine got an egg on her head) and then they are generously ‘cleansed’ with a great amount of seawater to make Neptune content.

One of the finest moments at sea is when a big fish is caught. To Team Zefiro’s great delight a 19,5 kilo/43 pound Yellow Fin Tuna that was caught offshore the Galapagos isles. After a respectable fight the tuna was brought on board, fileted and then consumed as sashimi and grilled tuna steak.

from left to right: Nay Lin Thun (deckhand), Aye Mint Thet (bosun) and Gerhard proudly present their ‘catch of the day’

More about the incredible landscape, flora and fauna of the Galapagos Islands in Part 2. 

Stay tuned!