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October 24, 2007
Galapagos, Galapagos, Galapagos….
My cousin Sammy, had been sailing his boat for the last 3-4 years and is now somewhere around equador. I am very jealous of him. Here is a letter I received from him -
There’s certainly more than meets the eye there and after one week on a diving cruise there, I can only say that I have barely seen its magic. Some take a three week cruise and they too don’t get to see all of beauty and glory of these enchanted islands.
In fact there is no one good time to visit. The islands’ weather is influenced sea currents. The cold season July through September is dominated but southern current bringing lots of plankton and thus abundant sea life. But it is also a dry season, so the islands are arid and the land animals are have a harder time surviving and there are fewer of them. And of course, it’s cold diving and the visibility is poor because of all the plankton. A particular cold year, La Nina, would even be better for under water life.
On the other hand, the warm season, December through February, is also the raining season. During these months it can rain cats and dogs all day and so the islands turn green. The land animals flourish. The warm water is lacking plankton, the migrating creatures are gone, and the local die out in numbers. So for land tours, one must deal with the rain and the over cast skies (not great for photography.) El Nino phenomenon would bring particularly more rain and thus more abundant life on land.
The islands are much bigger and farther apart (120 nautical miles) than what imagined. In some places, those that you probably never see on nature documentaries, they are plain ugly. There are four larger urban towns. They are really ugly and poor. Typical unfinished buildings scared visibly with the grey of unpainted building blocks. Streets lined up with stores selling the same T-Shirt and chatchkes fare to tourists. A population of about 30,000 survives on tourism and fishing.
Fishing is good but greed is depleting the fish stock. The Japanese and Chinese fleets skirt the reserve’s boundary and the lack of enforcement for lack of funds; violate these boundaries on a regular basis. Corruption and bribes are certainly not helping. The enforcing officers apparently earn few hundred dollars a months. So for such a little extra, they will willingly turn a blind eye.
Recently a ex-pat, turned Ecuadorian, by marriage, mistaken for a foreigner, was put in jail because he documented and reported this. The new and so loved president of Ecuador just approved a new law allowing the ‘accidental’ taking of sharks. The belief is that now that reporting is required, there will be more control. But in fact, it will just increase the number of sharks taken accidentally. The Chinese with their new found riches are driving up the price of shark fin soup. And so the population of shark is expected to dwindle to critical level in a few short decades.
As for my trip, 7 nights on a trimaran with two days near Darwin and Wolf islands. These are the northern and most remote islands with the best diving. Trimarans like catamarans are not the most cruise friendly vessel while making way. Yes they don’t heel and they have large living spaces. But the waves ‘bump’ into their suspended bellies. I am not sure one can really get used to all this banging and shaking. We were blessed with relatively calm seas, so it wasn’t much of a problem. The crew real efficient and friendly provided a very pleasant stay. The food was tasty too and the chef, the most important person on board, certainly earned his wage. Too bad the outdoor buffet style serving was the reason we often ate our meal cold. I was the only American aboard. Out of 16 divers, 7 were French, 2 Russians, 1 (other) Israeli, 2 Brits, 1 Spaniard, 1 Ecuadorian and 1 Pole.
The beauty of the underwater world was slow uncovering but we were very lucky. Once we reached Darwin, the dive master had us do a back roll practically on top of a whale shark. We swam with it for most of our dive. The next 2 dives we kept bumping into it, even seeing two crossing paths feet from each other. This was the highlight of the diving. We did see plenty of Galapagos sharks, hammerheads, turtles and eels. And even on lucky beautiful orange frog fish. Our last dive was a short and shallow where we had a chance to dance with sea lions. It did not take long for them to twist and turn around us, to tug at our fins and bump against our cameras. Fortunately, underwater, one can not smell them, as they truly stink on land. On land we saw them again basking in the sun, sea and land iguanas, giant turtles and lonesome George. We saw a variety of birds but too few species out of the many variety inhabiting these islands. Fourteen species of finches have evolved on the island. We saw only 2 of them.
During land trips we saw the sad abundance of introduces land species. Cows and donkeys dot the farm land. Yes, they have farms and banana plantations. Introduced timber and grass, ugly looking, grass, are spreading and endangering the native plants.
Overall it was a one of a kind magical trip. But I also discovered the sad side of the islands. During the trip I read Darwin for dummies and selected chapters of his Origin of the species. Nature dictates that isolated species will die out. Either because some ´fast´´ drastic change in the environment causes them to no longer fit or inbreeding makes them susceptible to diseases. Lonesome George, the last of his species will not mate with another species of giant turtle. On each island a different species of giant turtle evolved. Two other have been extinct no thanks to man. The flightless Cormorant is also endangered because of inbreeding. His inability to ´move on´ will doom it with the declining population of fish.
See the attached photos for some of the beauty of these islands.
Sam
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October 24, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink
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Comments
Loved this post Hanan. What a remarkable account of your nephew's travels and observations. Sad in parts for sure, but isn't it good that his observations can be read by so many here? Let's hope some good comes from the reportage.
Posted by: Julie at Oct 24, 2007 1:31:30 PM
Oops! Sorry, I meant your cousin, not your nephew.
Posted by: Julie at Oct 24, 2007 1:32:22 PM
Wow. I wish I was there. Ive always wanted to travel to this mysterious, enchanted Island. Good post keep up the exploring.
Posted by: Sugar Loaf Real Estate at Oct 25, 2007 8:55:35 AM
Lucky Cousin Sammy, love the images... Thanks for the inside view of Sammy's travels.
Posted by: Freddie at Oct 25, 2007 9:27:25 AM
Wow i cant believe he saw a shark whale up close.
It is so amasing how big these animals can get!!!
Posted by: Alexis Fitzpatrick at Jan 24, 2008 4:32:39 PM