46 | GALAPA-GO!
www.nitravelnews.com
TRAVEL WRITER NIGEL HEATH’S NEW YEAR GALAPAGOS SNAPSHOT
BY NIGEL HEATH
THIS was a spectacle I had never viewed before in all my years of travel, namely the administering of oxygen to several of my fellow passengers after we had emerged onto the Arrivals concourse at Quito’s Mariscal Sucre international airport. For at 2,850 metres and set in the foothill of the Andes, the sprawling Ecuadorian capital is the second highest in South America after La Paz in Bolivia. Quito was founded on the foundations of an Ancient Incan city and with its well- preserved colonial centre blending European, Moorish, and Indigenous styles, it was a most interesting city in which to spend a couple of days before making my much-anticipated visit to the Galapagos islands. This remote volcanic archipelago some
1369 km out into the Pacific was visited by Charles Darwin in 1835, and later inspired his theory of evolution.
Comprising of thirteen larger islands and seven smaller ones with their isolated terrain and diversity of plants and animal species, many found nowhere else on the planet, is considered one of the world’s most foremost wildlife viewing destinations.
But returning to the airport to board a
small jetliner for the two-hour flight out to Santa Cruz, which with a population of seventeen thousand, is the main tourism hub of the islands, slightly dimmed my romantic and preconceived idea of remoteness, but, luckily, it was short lived.
I joined a fourteen-strong party of fellow adventures waiting patiently on a quay to board a large and sturdy cabin cruiser which was to be our floating base for a never to be forgotten week’s exploration in and around
the far more remote islands and coming
ashore and staying over on Isabella, Floriana and San Christobell.
It was lunchtime when we landed on Isabella, the largest island in the archipelago which with five young volcanoes, is one of the most volcanically active areas in the world. Its giant Sierra Negra caldera which last erupted in 2005 is the second largest on the planet after the Ngorongoro Crater far away in Northern Tanzania
But stepping ashore onto a small jetty in one of Isabella’s quiet bays, our unsuspecting party had our first close-up and personal wildlife encounter! Dozens of huge sea lions flippered and flopped ashore on the small beach between the quay and the weathered wooden shack where we were to have lunch and there was nothing for it but to weave our way quietly through them in a single file all literally holding our noses because of the almost
February 2025
nauseating stench. That afternoon, a local guide arrived to
take us on our first wildlife trek, but sadly as the much anticipated walk commenced, there appeared little of interest to capture our eager attention. At last, we came upon a small brightly coloured lizard,
whereupon this
unsuspecting creature became the focus of everyone’s attention.
Then we continued around the coast
with a solitary brown pelican keeping station with us overhead, but refusing to land and be photographed.
So much for these islands having an abundance of wildlife, so tame that the animals would be only too delighted to sit there and be photographed, I thought. Then suddenly all that changed when we emerged onto a small and rocky beach swarming with large and prehistoric looking Land Iguanas, who did not seem to be the slightest bit interested in us! We spent two full days staying on Isabella, exploring the quiet beaches and bays and hiking amid the volcanoes often with hot rock under our boots and the caustic smell of sulphur drifting on the air
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