The Tortoise and the Albatross

We haven’t been in the Galapagos even a week but my class and I already got to visit another one of the islands. On Saturday we took a boat to the closest uninhabited island of Española. Our class met at one of the many snorkel rental shops to get fitted for wet suits and flippers before making our way to the tourist pier. We had to go through a checkpoint where they checked our bags to make sure we didn’t have anything that could contaminate another island. As we loaded onto the boat we had to step in a tote with a spongy bottom to disinfect our shoes of any bacteria or sea lion poop that we may have inadvertently brought with us. Then we prepared for the worst part of the trip, the two-hour boat ride. I sat at the back because that is where they said you should sit if you get sea sick easily. This meant I was not in the covered cabin so soon I had a slight layer of salt all over my rain jacket and sunglasses. I also was able to see as we approached huge waves, one of which caused the bench I was sitting on to break. When that happened, close to the end of the nausea inducing trip, I had been concentrating really hard on not throwing up so the distraction was good but having to walk-fall-crawl to a new seat did not feel great. Thankfully after that I was able to fall asleep for the last 30 minutes, allowing my stomach a little time to sort itself out.

As we arrived, they told us that what we thought was going to be a dry landing (where you just hop off the little boat on to the beach) was actually going to be a wet landing so we all had to take off our shoes and roll up our pants before splitting into groups of four each make it over to the island in a small inflatable dingy. We had to sit right on the side of it and it felt like one medium sized wave would tip us right over. As we got closer to the shore we got ready to hop off and hope that we had rolled up our pants enough to avoid them getting soaked by incoming waves. Everyone hoped off and quickly walked around the sea lions on the shore to be able to get the sand off our feet and put our hiking boots back on. Not only were there a bunch of sea lions but there were even more marine iguanas. This was probably the biggest group of iguanas I had seen yet, they were everywhere! Our guide pointed out a few sea turtles that poked their heads out of the water as we put our shoes on, making me very hopeful to see them again later when we went snorkeling.

(Look closely for the iguanas in this picture)

We started our hike around the island and one of the first things we had to avoid stepping in on the path was some dried up sea lion placenta. (That wasn’t the only time either) We also had to avoid some iguanas and dead birds along the way too. I was actually surprised by the number of different dead animals we saw and the different levels of decay. It seemed like they were decaying very slowly and that there weren’t any scavenger species that existed to clean up. There aren’t any vultures on the island, the only raptor is a Galapagos Hawk, which we actually saw tending to her nest with a few chicks. And there aren’t any animals like dogs or anything that aid in cleaning up so the carcasses are just left to slowly decompose. One of the saddest was probably a baby albatross that was decayed to just bones and feathers.

As we walked along, our naturalist guide pointed out the many different bird species and pointed out the reasons that some birds live on this type of island rather than other, mainly the albatross who nest here because of the cliffs that exist to help the big albatross get into the air when there is not a lot of wind. We saw quite a few albatrosses, and even one that was feeding one of the fluffy babies.

The island seemed to be dominated by birds. They were everywhere you looked and almost everyone was different, it was incredible. We rounded back around the end of the loop and waited with the marine iguanas for our little ride back to the big boat for some lunch and to get ready for snorkeling!

We each had a little lunch prepared in Tupperware and it was no too much of a surprise that it was rice and fish. We all quickly ate because we were anxious to get in the water. The boat took us over to a different spot of the island to snorkel and we all squeezed into our wet suits, put on our masks and flippers and hopped into the freezing cold water. It took my breath away for a second when I first jumped in because it was so cold. I was expecting it to be cold from the day I stuck my feet in at the beach near the school but it’s a completely different thing when you just jump in feet first. I swam over to the group that had jumped in before me and we all started to adjust our masks and practice breathing through the snorkel – this took me a second because I kept trying to breathe and would scare myself too much to be able to and ended up gasping for air back at the surface. I soon got comfortable breathing and was able to make my way with the group against the strong current.

As we swam along we saw a bunch of fish and a few star fish but the best thing was the sea lions. They were around us the whole time! They would appear out of nowhere and start swimming straight towards my face or swim around someone who had dove down to try to see a starfish up close. It was so fun! The sea lions were so playful and seemed genuinely curious about us.

Sadly, we didn’t see any sea turtles but it was still so much fun. Phoebe and I were the last two people out because we wanted to keep going once the cold wasn’t bothering us anymore. It was actually kind of scary when we were getting out because we were close to the rocks so the boat had pulled over to get the group in and as we were all waiting to get back on board the boat kept getting closer and closer to the rocks. By the time Phoebe and I hoped on, the boat had to quickly pull away to avoid hitting the cliff.

Once back on board, we peeled off our wetsuits and enjoyed some warm cinnamon tea and bread before the long trek back to San Cristobal. I think my favorite thing about that trip overall was that the island was truly uninhabited by people and you could feel the difference that made in the environment. The only sign of humans was the little posts that had been put up to show the path that you had to stay on. Besides that, the land was all natural. It’s so uncommon, basically impossible, to find a place that hasn’t been overrun by people. On the boat ride back, most of us fell asleep and were woken up by a huge wave that was our wake up call. I woke up and realized I was so out that I had fallen asleep on my friend Maggie’s shoulder, she was sweet and had woken up before me but didn’t wake me up. I had woken up enough after that to make it back to the house and then quickly fell back asleep.

On Sunday, my host family and I took an early morning bus to the highlands and another beach, Puerto Chino. The bus left at 8 so I had to wake up early and somehow be coherent enough to get my stuff together for the beach. I followed my host mom to the bus stop and we all boarded. On the ride there, I watched out the window and saw the changes in environment happen pretty fast. In town, there is not a lot of vegetation and if there is its most likely a cactus, but on the way to the highlands there were grasses and orange trees all along the road. (I also saw some cows!)

We drove through another little town called El Progreso and then arrived at the Galapaguera. The Galapaguera is a tortoise breeding center that is a bunch of open land used to raise new giant tortoises, with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. We walked through a small gate that lead right to the path where there were two tortoises right in front of us crossing over the path. They were so huge (I would say giant but they’ve already got that adjective) and slow. I showed my friend one of the videos the next day in class and she thought it could’ve been in slow motion. We waited for them to move to where we could pass by and then we started the trail to go see more. Along the trail there were a few traffic jams so the group of us had to file along the edge of the trail to get around the 400 kg animal. Towards the end of the trail we saw the nursery were they have tortoises from different ages in different cages together. As they get bigger they are able to move into the outdoor area and then are eventually released into the wild.

After we made it through the trail, we walked up to an over look to see the edge of the island, where the ocean looked like it went on forever. We walked back along the road to get to the beach and down a nice stone path to the sand. The sand at the beach by the school is very shelly and not as fine as the sand back home so that was what I was expecting. The sand turned out to be so similar to what we have back home, just whiter, a bit softer, and had a few sea lions lounging around. The beach had a ton of rocks that we had to walk over to be able to get to the little camp sites they have cleared in the trees. We set down our stuff and started exploring.

There was a hill that we walked up where we were able to see the gorgeous blue water and a few sea turtles! They were sticking their heads out of the water and we could see their shadows too, however it was a bit difficult to determine if it was actually a sea turtle or if it was just a rock without paying attention to make sure that the rock was actually moving. At the top of the hill there were also some blue footed boobies and frigate birds.

We headed back down to the beach and Gabriel and I went swimming. I had to really work myself up to get in the water since it was so cold, especially after having swam with a wetsuit on the day before. After putting on sunscreen and joking how my mom would’ve been proud I took the time to do that (even though it was not enough because I still burned my back oops), it took me probably 5 minutes of just standing at the edge of the waves to work up the courage to wade in.

Once I did, it felt like my legs were already almost numb. The water was freezing. It was worse too because only my legs were in the water so as I walked deeper it was like each section of my body slowly got colder and colder. (My face tells you how cold this water was!) I decided to go completely underwater and that made it slightly better since now it was just my entire body was cold. But five minutes later, I was fine with the temperature and just had to be concerned with stepping/hitting the rocks and not with my fingers falling off. The current was really strong here as well and unlike back home where you feel like you can walk out a mile and the water will still be at your waist, here I walked out maybe 20 feet and had to start treading water. This meant that I could really feel the pull of the waves and so I decided I didn’t like not being able to touch so I found a rock to stand on. This was hard because the waves still pulled me around a bit, so by the end of the day my toes felt pretty beat up. All the cold was worth it though because as we were swimming the sea turtles we had seen up on the hill were still there and would pop up randomly near us, so again had to watch for sea turtle vs rock as I was walking around.

Overall, the day at the beach was so fun because it was a better version of a beach than we have back home. People were still doing all the same things we do when we go to North Myrtle, such as cover someone in sand to make them into a mermaid (Gabriel said it was actually warmer in the sand than outside), or playing soccer, but instead of avoiding stepping on other beach goers, we had to avoid running into sea lions and sea turtles.

We headed back to the house and I fell asleep on the bus ride home, I don’t know what it is here that allows me to sleep on different transportation but I hope it sticks with me when I get home! I took a shower to prevent my hair from staying in permanent knots and then had dinner and watched some TV with the family before going to bed to be ready for more field work the next day.