10/8: Puerto Ayora, Galapagos: Charles Darwin & Lonesome George!

One of our most anticipated parts of our 3.5-month trip to South America was visiting the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador for ten days. Pat and Janina, close friends from Denver, had long raved about the wonderful time they had had there so we were very excited about seeing some of the islands and the incredible array of wildlife for ourselves.

We didn’t realize, though, the extensive AND expensive process involved leaving the mainland. Prior to checking in for our flight, we needed to have our bags inspected for potentially harmful items that may affect the islands’ wildlife. A plastic cable was then tied on each bag that was not removed until we’d reached Baltra, the main and gateway airport on the islands. Then we had to pay a $20 per person departure fee before finally checking in.

On board the flight, the cabin was sprayed because of concerns of contamination of bugs brought from the mainland. Once we arrived an hour later, we had to go through customs/immigration including filling out a declaration form as if we were entering a foreign country and pay a $100 national park fee per person. No big deal, we thought.

But then, all arriving passengers had to wait behind a long line until all checked bags were laid out in front of everyone. Then police dogs and their handlers sniffed each bag for anything we surmised that could contaminate the islands’ fragile ecosystem. 

It was a tad freaky when the dogs who ran on top of the bags suddenly stopped at certain bags for a longer period of time. 

The handler then removed those bags while all the passengers wondered what exactly the dogs were trained to sniff for. We certainly had our fair share of food products in our bags: my snack-sized bags of raisins from home, crackers, Steven’s tiny bags of noodle soups and packages of tuna, some individual packages of cookies in case we had an attack of the munchies, etc.

I read later that the quarantine system was in place for inspectors to check incoming cargo for alien pests and seeds and the usual stowaway frogs, rats and insects. We both breathed a huge sigh of relief when the dogs failed to pay any extra attention to our bags, let me tell you, as we hadn’t declared any of the food items. You would have laughed if you had seen the mad scramble once the go ahead was given and all the passengers collected their bags off the conveyor belt!

Since the airport was located on the island of Baltra, and virtually all the passengers were going to the center of the archipelago, the nearby island of Santa Cruz, we were glad there were buses waiting to transport people to the Baltra dock located about twenty minutes away.

I can't tell you what we envisioned upon being on one of the Galapagos islands but this rather barren landscape would not have been it.

We were both almost giddy seeing the island's turquoise-colored water for the first time from the bus.

Once at the Baltra dock, our luggage was placed on the top of the water taxi for the short ride across the channel. Luckily, there were no issues as there weren’t nearly enough life jackets for all the passengers.

Some people chose smaller water taxis for the quick hop across the channel.

Steven didn't look too happy about going to Puerto Ayora for the next few days, did he!

The final transportation leg was a bus taking us for the 45-minute journey from the northern part of the island to the islands’ most developed town, Puerto Ayora, located on the southeastern tip where we were staying for the next four nights. The driver dropped us on the main street and, thanks to maps.me, we found our way to the hotel lugging our bags on the uneven streets and almost non-existent sidewalks. We had been used to the ‘luxury’ and comfort of being picked up and dropped off at our hotel or taking a taxi rather than having to lug our bags and find the place by ourselves!

The owners were very pleasant but spoke no English. By that point in the trip, I normally understood the gist of what someone was saying if it were said slowly and Steven had memorized several phrases so, between the two of us, we were a good team when it came to getting by in Spanish!

Acknowledgement goes to Lonely Planet for the following info: “It’s quite humbling that 13 scarred volcanic islands and more than 100 islets, scattered across more than 45,000 square kilometers of ocean, 960 km adrift from the Ecuadorian mainland, should have been so instrumental in changing humanity’s perception of itself. Yet it was the forbidding Galapagos Islands – once feared as a bewitched and waterless hell, then the haunt of pirates and whalers – that spurred Charles Darwin to formulate his theory of evolution by natural selection, catapulting science - and the world - into the modern era. Today the archipelago’s matchless wildlife, stunning scenery and unique history make it arguably the world’s premier wildlife destination.”

A total of about 30,000 people live in just four main settlements on four inhabited islands. These settled sites represent just three percent of the land area of the archipelago. In response to the damage caused by centuries of human interference, the rest of the land – more than 7,600 square kilometers – has, since 1959, been protected as a national park with tourists restricted to the colonized areas and 69 designated visitor sites spread across the islands and 79 water-based sites.

Brief history: Until the middle of the 20th century, it was thought that the Galapagos Islands were out of reach of the prehistoric coastal peoples of the coastal mainland. But in 1947, explorer and archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl proved otherwise with his famous voyage from Peru to Polynesia on a balsa raft called the Kon Tiki. His excavations on the islands revealed over 130 shards of pre-Colombian pottery from coastal Peru and Ecuador which led him to conclude that the islands were used as a seasonal fishing base.

A Flemish cartographer names the islands Galapagos, Spanish for ‘tortoises’ on his 1574 map. The word comes from an old Spanish word meaning “saddle.”  The Galapagos islands have giant tortoises whose shells are in two basic shapes - dome-shaped and saddle-shaped. Thus, the islands were named for the giant tortoises with shells that have the latter shape. The islands’ other name at the time, Las Encantadas - enchanted or bewitched - came about from the strong currents and deep mists that made landing so difficult as if the shore itself was being moved by unearthly powers.

Pirates and Whalers: The islands' reputation for being haunted made the Galapagos a perfect base for a number of 17th and 18th century English pirates who came to the Pacific to pick off merchant ships as they sailed along the mainland coast. In the closing years of the 18th century, sperm whales were one of the major sources of oil and the cold currents around the Galapagos were ideal to attract large numbers. The whalers caused incalculable damage to whale populations and decimated the Galapagos tortoises too. 

Each ship could have loaded as many as 600 of the creatures before setting sail. An estimated total of about 200,000 tortoises were taken during the whaling era. That resulted in the extinction of giant tortoise subspecies on three islands. It was almost unfathomable that ninety percent of the tortoises were lost because of whalers. Only one tortoise remained on one island in the Galapagos and just fourteen on another island.

Darwin and the Galapagos: Before planning our trip to the Galapagos Islands, I wasn’t aware that Charles Darwin’s treatise ‘On the Origin of Species’ came about as a result of his visit to the islands in 1835. Through his research, he coined the term ‘natural selection’ in which at a given time, certain members of a species were more suited to their surroundings than others and therefore more likely to survive in it. That meant they could pass on advantageous characteristics to their offspring. Over time as entire population would come to develop those special features, eventually becoming an entirely new species. 

Darwin called this ‘descent with modification’ rather than evolution. In his groundbreaking model, change was without direction and could result in a number of new species from a single ancestor. It was only in the 1930s that his theory of natural selection received the full recognition it deserved. That formed the basis of modern biology and forever changed humanity’s view of itself.

After getting the lay of the land from our hotel owner – a map, available tours to other islands, etc – we walked toward the Charles Darwin Research Station, anxious to see some large tortoises. More than 200 scientists and volunteers at the station are involved with research and conservation efforts. The most well-known involved a captive breeding program for giant tortoises. We were told that forty percent of the $100 national park fee is given to the park to run the eradication and restoration projects on the islands.

Just before the station, we saw a sign warning everyone to be vigilant near the manzanillo trees which were endemic to the Galapagos, i.e. only found there and nowhere else in the world. Their fruits were poisonous and the leaves had an irritant latex.

Beyond the interpretation center were the tortoise rearing pens where predator-proof enclosures held batches of miniature giant tortoises divided by age. Since 1965, the center has had a re-population program as tortoises often eat the eggs so the eggs are carefully extracted from the wild as soon as the turtles lay them. 

The tortoises are incubated here artificially in two chambers. Only one degree difference in temperature affects the turtle’s sex as a certain hormone is secreted by females. The baby turtles receive lots of protection and attention by staff; they are fed and watered three times a week for two years. 

To determine when to move the turtles to another corral, the length of the turtle’s shell is measured. After two or three years, the hatchlings are moved to larger enclosures with the kind of terrain commonly found in the wild. 

When the tortoises weigh about 1.5kg or are four to six years old, they are thought to have grown to an ‘uneatable’ size as far as predators, especially black rats, are concerned and repatriated to their home islands. Since 1965, the staff have helped to produce 5,000 tortoises. There were 1,000 baby tortoises at the center in various stages of development!

The small ones were one to three years old. The red color on the shell indicated the tortoise would go to Isla San Cristobal, the white color meant they were destined for Isla Santiago.

These 60-pound tortoises moved about three miles per hour.

The ranger joked that love must be in the air when he looked at a pair of tortoises having fun!

We were lucky to tag along with a private tour who was learning all about the islands’ most famous resident, Lonesome George. He was the last known surviving tortoise of the Pinta Island subspecies and was considered by some to be the rarest animal in the world. Until his death at an estimated age of 100 in June 2012, his home was the Charles Darwin Research Station. When Lonesome George was 'brought back' just a few months ago to the Research Station, he was honored with his own building.

I was surprised that our group of twelve people had to enter the temperature-controlled anteroom which had airlocks. After remaining there for a minute, we could then enter the main room.

From 1906 until 1971 when George was found, it was thought that Pinta tortoises were extinct. In that 65-year span, Lonesome George saw no other tortoises so, when he was re-introduced to others in the hope of populating that species, he had no idea how to relate to them. 

Every effort was made to produce a baby Lonesome George but they were in vain and so, his species died out when he did. The efforts to mate him with female tortoises from elsewhere in the islands only seemed to enhance his popularity with the public!

I was really excited about seeing Lonesome George even if it were just the taxidermy version as I had seen a video on YouTube about the laborious process of making him appear as realistic as his old self. He looked so lifelike and real, it was uncanny. 

From Lonesome George's new home, a raised boardwalk wove past the tortoise corrals which housed fully grown giant tortoises.

The saddleback tortoise was much taller and had a longer neck than other tortoises which helped the tortoise to reach vegetation at higher heights. It was so heartwarming to learn that the Floreana species of tortoises will return to that island for the first time in 150 years.

Super Diego, a 130ish-year-old Espanola Island tortoise was brought here from the San Diego Zoo to try and match the Lonesome George gene pool. Diego ruled the roost as the most famous inhabitant after Lonesome George died in 2012. 

He had 800 mates, therefore his name of Super Diego! He is estimated to have fathered about 1,700 children, so there’s not much chance of that species dying out! Sightings of Super Diego were often very rare so it was a real treat to see him. 

We read that giant tortoises are the largest terrestrial reptiles on earth and are only found in two places in the world: here in the Galapagos and on Sculpture of Charles Darwin: in the Indian Ocean. Giant tortoises once lived on all continents except Antarctica and some were much larger than today's Galapagos tortoises. It's believed that about 3 million years ago, giant tortoises living on mainland South America were washed into the ocean, floated or were carried on vegetation rafts and luckily made it to shore on the Galapagos. Their trips may have taken six weeks!

It was so much fun watching Super Diego and the tortoises even if they moved at a slow pace and they weren't in a natural environment!

This was a yellow iguana, also called a land iguana. I bet you we saw hundreds and hundreds of land iguanas while on/in the Galapagos but likely only one or two other yellow iguanas.

The Espanola giant tortoise population once numbered in the thousands. But by 1960, that had been reduced to just 14 adults. Between 1963 and 1974, all survivors - 12 females and 2 males - were brought into captivity and united with another 'Diego' brought back from the San Diego Zoo in 1975.

To date, more than 2,000 of their captive-raised offspring have since been released back onto Espanola and the population is now self-sustaining.

Males grow up to 75 kilos. This tortoise's head was totally recessed. I don't know what that meant - was he sleeping, aware of a possible threat or what?

This from the more than you may want to know category! One pile of Galapagos poo can contain thousands of seeds from up to nine species of plants. Galapagos tortoises eat least 70 species of plants; many of them are introduced or invasive species. Tortoises eat large amounts of fruit and the seeds in the fruit often pass through their digestive system intact. Since seeds can remain in their gut for up to a month and during that time a tortoise can migrate over 10kms, that helps plant species spread and survive on Galapagos.

Sculpture of Charles Darwin:

The Center has also devoted extensive resources to the Mangrove Finch Project because of major concerns of their being close to extinction due to a specific parasite. Center staffers collect finch eggs down from high trees or wherever they find them so the parasitic fly's larvae don’t feed on the birds' nestlings. The birds are then hand-reared before being released into the wild, a process known as head-starting. As of 2014, 15 finches were released into the wild as part of the center's breeding and restoration project. Though very laudable, it sounded like a paltry number.

We could hear the waves earlier as we walked around the center so we walked down to the beach behind the Research Center. The beach was rocky and the air temperature at 5 was chilly; we hated to think how cold the water would be.

A take on the nearby Bartolme Island!

We were happy to learn about the conservation efforts of hard-working scientists in the Galapagos. Visiting the Research Center was a critical starting point for our understanding of the Galapagos island fauna. The takeaway for me was holding back the tide of human damage that started centuries ago.

Next post: Visiting the Highlands of Santa Cruz.

Posted on November 9th, 2017, from La Paz, Bolivia.