Doomed to success? Visiting the Galapagos …

When is a good thing too good?  Each year the Galapagos Islands seem to get more and more popular.  At one time, there were only 60,000 visitors to the islands, but it has grown by tens of thousands.  Recently, a five star hotel opened, appropriately $400 - 500 per night the last time I checked, which is about the cost of the Explorer II.  This is just one example of how the islands may be doomed to their success.  A five star hotel takes a lot of construction and creates more traffic and pollution … you can only be so eco-friendly.  This cannot help but change the islands.

One thing that I learned on my trip was the islands were not always protected.  In fact, they have a storied past.  After Darwin’s  discovery, there were several attempt to colonize and exploit the islands.  Mainland animals like horses and goats were imported and competed with native animals.  You would not believe how the islands got rid of the goats … they herded them and shot them!  What about taking them back to the mainland?

This time, instead of trying to colonize the islands, are we going to tour it to death?  Not to sound like a hypocrite because I have already been to the island, but I was glad to hear that Ecuador was going to reduce the number of visitors to the island.  My compliments to Ecuador.

By the way, despite earlier attempts to colonize, I was glad to see that islands appeared pristine … mostly.  There were no toilets, waste bins, or anything human that stayed on the island … other than footprints.

What if the US owned the Galapagos?

I’ve been back a couple of months from my visit to the Galapagos Islands and I kept thinking, what if the United States owned the Islands?  At one point, the Islands belonged to no one and Ecuador claimed them, but what if the United States had foreseen their worth and said we want the islands.

Well, here are my predictions:

• There would be many more visitors to the Islands … more American visitors.
• There would be more than the one 5-star available.
• One would be able to put tissue paper in the toilet.
• Security would be tighter … no more casual taking of volcanic rock.
• Each island would have a gift shop that visitors would have to pass in order to leave.
• The fee to enter the park would be more than the current $100.
• Inside the gift shops, you would have an opportunity to adopt a specie.
• The paths would be paved so that there would be no injuries.  No need to get the lawyers involved.
• There would be many more excursions, including night visits for the adventurous types.
• The islands would also have mini-restaurants where one could order blue-footed boobies burgers, sea lion salads, and iguana soup.  (Popular food items would be named after animals … we would not actually eat them.)
• You would not have to go all the way to the Galapagos to see their animals, you would just have to visit your local zoo.
• And finally, Disney would be the official tour operator with fun rides and all.

Another bathroom post … Explorer II

If you are going to the Galapagos and you are visiting the islands via ship or land, be prepared.  During my research on ships and hotels, I kept reading on several blogs that many hotels require you to dispose of your waste paper (toilet paper) in a waste basket … my first thoughts were how disgusting!  While being disgusting, I thought that it can’t be hygienic and what about the smell.  One blogger mentioned that they were horrified about the sanitary conditions of their bathroom.  So, these comments convinced me that I didn’t want to stay on an island hotel, beside you see less of the Galapagos this way too.

I finally decided to go with the Explorer II.  This is a great ship and the staff understands service.  It’s one of the largest ships that visit the islands.  Our room was spacious and we had a nice balcony.  We had a private bath, hot water, and cabin service twice a day … thank goodness.  To our surprise, we were told not to place anything other than liquids in the toilets, else we risked messing up the toilets for the entire deck.  Great!  While it was disgusting to deposit our toilet paper in a waste basket, at least, it was sealed  and was collected daily.  Believe me, do you risk placing your toilet paper in the toilet … the toilet uses very little water and works on a vacuum principle.

Last word, it wasn’t the end of the world and we had a great time.

Clubbing sea lions to death

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that 53 sea lions in the Galapagos Islands had been clubbed to death.  The deaths were reported as having to have been caused by humans.  Having recently visited the Islands, I can certainly attest that these animals are not afraid of the world’s most dangerous predator and were easy targets, but why and who?  The Ecuadorians are investigating the killings; however, I am not optimistic that we will learn who committed the crimes, unless someone reports that they know who killed these sea lions.  The islands are open and accessible by boat with some islands inhabited by people. 

Why such a senseless and cruel act?  Was this an insane effort to hurt the tourism business which is criticized for changing the ecology of the area?  Just some random lunatic?  How do you protect the Islands without changing them?

Truly a horrible story.

My favorite Galapagos Island

Trying to determine which of the Galapagos Islands was my favorite is really difficult.  While there is a lot of similarity between the islands, they are also unique too. 

So, on our trip, we visited 6 islands:  Bartholomew, James Island, Fernandina, Isabella, North Seymour, and Santa Cruz.  We would visit one island in the morning and one island in the afternoon.  Our last day, we visited the islet, Mosquera.

Bartholomew, the first island that we visited, was probably the best view that we had where we climbed to the top of the island.  We saw few animals like lava lizards, iguanas, crabs, sea lions, and supposedly there was a dolphin sighting.  So, during our hike, our naturalist pointed out native plants and talked about the island formation.

Later that afternoon we visited James Island where we saw abandoned structures and the remnants of salt mining.  The island has much more vegetation than Bartholomew and we saw much more wildlife … sea lions, iguanas, crabs, a hawk, and several birds.

The next day we visited Fernandina Island.  This is the island of iguanas.  At our landing we had to carefully navigate through a multitude of iguanas, sunning on the rocks.  We actually got to see a dispute over territory (an iguana fight).  We also got a close view of flightless cormorants.  Sea lions and crabs are ubiquitous.  We also learn about lava flows, which are identical to the ones found in the Hawaiian island chain.  We also unexpectedly see a sea turtle.  The wildlife is active and varied here.

Isabella was our afternoon island where we took a dingy tour and did not actually land on the island.  I was a little concerned about the dingy tour and what we would see, but this tour was really interesting.  We even visited a cave.  We saw a multitude of blue-footed boobies perched on the cliff walls.  There were several sea turtles and stingray sightings and other birds.  Of course, there were sea lions, crabs, and iguanas.  It is amazing that sea lions are as adept at climbing as they are.

Our last full day in the Galapagos, we started the day by visiting North Seymour Island … one word incredible.  The main wildlife was birds:  blue- and teal/green-footed boobies and frigates who were mating and nesting.  There were active sea lions too.  The island also have quite colourful vegetation.

No visit to the Galapagos would be complete without a visit to Santa Cruz to visit the giant tortoises and the lava tunnel.  Pictures do not do these animals justice.  Depending on your perspective, we visited at the right time.  The tortoises were mating.  They are a little skittish, but you can get quite close like centimeters.

Our last day, we take a dingy tour to the islet Mosquera.  The highlight was a mating frigate and the geology of the islet.  Along the ride, we saw sea lions and crabs.

I suppose I would have to say North Seymour is my favorite because the birds were so active and plentiful and didn’t fly away when they saw us.

Cruise ship or yacht for the Galapagos …

One of the major decisions that we had to make regarding our visit to the Galapagos Islands was how do we want to visit the islands … by land or sea.  The land based option would mean that we would need to stay on one of the islands with a hotel, which subsequently would mean that we would be geographically limited in what we could see.  The choice between land and sea was easy for us, because we wanted to see as much of the Galapagos as we could.

  Now, the decision for us was whether we would visit the islands via cruise ship or yacht.  Until I started researching our options, I did not know there were so many options from 16 passenger yachts to 100 passenger cruise ships.  Given all these options, I tried to read as many comments and blogs from other travelers as possible. 

There are strong feeling on both sides.  Some of the compelling arguments that the cruise ship side make is that “you get to travel comfortably” without really compromising the experience of visiting the Islands and seeing the wildlife.

  The yachts make many compelling arguments too.  They refer to their accommodations as cozy or intimate.  They say that your experience and contact with the naturalist is more flexible with you being able to make requests.  Yachts are also less expensive and are allowed closer to the islands, and in some instances the only vessels allowed to some islands … supposedly.  The National Park Service actually determines where each vessel goes.  Perhaps, most compelling is that yachts have less of an impact on the environment than cruise ships. 

Given the two, we decided to take the cruise ship option.  Our ship, the Explorer II was excellent.  We had great service like clean towels and room service daily, there was a physician aboard, there were social and educational activities, we had access to the naturalists, the group sizes on our ship were no larger than the groups on the 16 passenger yachts, we could even change groups if we wanted, conservation seemed important [the Explorer II talked about the 3 R's - reuse, reduce, and recycle], passengers could snorkel and scuba dive, the ship’s size minimize swaying and motion sickness, the food was good [the buffet breakfast was okay, the buffet lunch was good, the menu dinner was excellent], most importantly, we could avoid passengers that we did not like … hard to do on a small ship or yacht.  Believe me there were many passengers that would have made me abandon ship had we been on a 16 passenger yacht. 

We had the best of both worlds, an ecologically friendly way to see the Islands without giving up too many comforts.  Admittedly, cruise ships are more expensive.  For instance, we could have taken a 7 day, 6 night adventure on a yacht that would still have cost less than our 5 day, 4 night cruise.  In fact, the yacht option I looked at would have been at most 60% of the cost of our cruise.

The true choice between cruise ship and yacht is not really which is better, but a matter of taste.  Service and comfort are important to us.  The thought of being trapped for days with a small group of people that I do not like scares me.  The yachts and smaller ships may get closer to the islands, but a few minutes longer on a dingy is okay with me.   

For some, a yacht or small ship would be the best option, but I am glad that I did my research first … for us, cruising was the best option. 

Confessing my ignorance … Galapagos Islands

As I was planning our trip to the Galapagos Islands, I learned a lot about the country of Ecuador and the Islands themselves.  The Galapagos Islands are world famous, but it is one of those places that you know about without knowing a lot about.

I knew the Galapagos Islands are a series of islands.  The Islands were important to Darwin and his theory of evolution and survival of the fittest.  The Islands were separated from the mainland and the animals adapted differently.  The Islands are protected and an ecological venture.

What I didn’t know …

• The Galapagos belong to Ecuador … by default since no one else wanted them.
• The Islands are about 600 miles west of mainland Ecuador.
• There are over several large islands and around 40 islets.
• There are two airports in the Galapagos that accommodate commerical sized jets … I think Airbus.
• There are over 20,000 natives of Galapagos and several hotels including the five star Palms.
• There are two ways to see the Islands … cruise ship/yacht or hotel.  [My preference is cruise ship.]
• The Islands are on a geological hot spot like the Hawaiian Islands which are way further west.  There are still volcanic eruptions.
• There were multiple attempts to colonize the Islands.
• The natural beauty of some of the islands rivals the uniqueness of the animal populations.

I am sure that there is even more that I do not know, but that’s all I am willing to confess.