The Galapagos

By Micayla and Darius

What a week. We went to the Galapagos Islands. Pirates were the first to discover the islands and used them for a base when they weren’t raiding other ships. Later whalers used the islands as a place to get food and water. The Pirates and Whalers took thousands of turtles and used them for food on their ships because the turtles could live up to a year without food or water. In the 1830s, Charles Darwin visited the islands on a boat called the Beagle and discovered a bunch of different species of birds and lizards living on the different islands. This discovery helped him develop his theory of natural selection and evolution.

We visited the islands on a boat called the Fragata. The boat had four levels. The first level had bedrooms and storage rooms. The second level had a bar, a lounge, a kitchen, eating area, and a dock that we used to get on and off of a dingy. The third level had more sleeping rooms, an outside deck, and the captain's steering room. The fourth level was a sun deck. Each morning, they rang a bell to wake us up for breakfast. After eating, we usually got onto a dingy and landed on an island. On the island, we would explore the beaches, the forest, and the mountains. Next, we usually went snorkeling before lunch. After resting, we’d visit another island and go snorkeling again. Then it was time for drinks and snacks, before having a briefing about the next day. Then we’d have dinner and watch a movie before bed. There were about 8 crew members and 16 visitors on the boat.

When exploring the islands, we saw lots of animals. There were small lava lizards, large land and marine iguanas, 14 different kinds of finches (small birds), red footed, nazca, and blue footed boobies, sea turtles laying eggs, land turtles, sea lions, penguins, frigate birds, pelicans, hawks, heron, and lots of other birds.



The animals were not afraid of us so we could get really close to them. So close that it was hard not to reach out and touch them. They used to let you touch them, but they don't any more so that the animals won't catch our germs and will continue to evolve in a more nature way. They also are trying to get rid of some animals that were introduced by man, like rats and goats, and trying to help some that we hurt, like the tortoises. They also make us wash our feet and shoes when we leave an island so that we don't bring seeds or soil to another island by accident and introduce a plant that was not there.

Many of the mommy sea lions had recently had babies that would bark and chase their moms around trying to get milk. The daddies swam close to the shore and made a really loud barking noise to say this is their land.



Many of the boobies were either sitting on eggs or had recently had babies that were really fluffy. We learned that the boobies got their name from the mating dance they do which looks silly as they lift one foot then the other rocking back and forth. In Spanish there is a word "bobo" which means fool and the British then made that word into booby, which also means fool or foolish. We watched a heron catch and then eat an octopus that was in a tidal pool.



Near the coast, we saw lots of turtles swimming and mating. When they mated in looked like one turtle was riding on the back of another turtle.



On one island, there were huge land tortoises. When they laid their eggs, they traveled for 2 months to the far side of the island where they built their nests.



We also saw lots of iguanas. The marine iguanas were black and swam in water. When they swim, they get sea water in their mouths and then when they are resting on rocks they sneeze out salt from their noses. The land iguanas were very colorful. On one island they were red and green, kind of like a Christmas tree. On another island, they were gold and yellow. And on another island they were dark brown or black like the marine iguanas.



We also saw a few penguins that were standing on the shore. It was funny to see them with a cactus behind them!



When we went snorkeling, we got to see thousands of reef fish, sea turtles, rays, sea lions, and sharks. The reef fish were all different colors. There were angel fish, pipe fish, parrot fish, and lots more. The sea turtles were huge and they would swim slowly through the water. We could get close enough to touch them and sometimes could dive under the water and swim under them. There were a few different kinds of rays. Some were really big and were larger than us. Some were smaller and spotted. Sometimes they would be sitting by themselves under a rock or on the sand. Other times there would be several of them swimming together. The sea lions were really fun. They would swim up to us and try to play with us, swimming in circle and diving down to the bottom. One day we saw six of them playing with shell creatures on the bottom. The most thrilling was seeing sharks. There were white tipped and black tipped reef sharks and a Galapagos shark. We got to see them really close. One time there were about twenty of them circling really close to us. They only eat at night so we were safe.

The islands were really interesting because the trees, shrubs and surface was different on each one. Some were covered with hard, black lava. Another was covered in lava ash and had only a few cactus growing on it. Others had hundreds of twisted holly trees.



On one island the holly trees were white. On another island they were red. Because the rainy season had not started, they did not have any leaves and it was like walking through a spooky forest. A few islands were formed by volcano cones and on one we could look down into a collapsed volcano. It was about a 1000 feet down. On this island, we were really high and there were taller trees and lots of leaves, shrubs, and ferns. That is because this part of the island is often covered in clouds and gets water from them, while the other islands are dry and rarely have clouds. And some islands also had mangrove swamps. One day we rode through the swamps in a dingy and saw lots of baby sharks. Every island was an adventure.



We met a really nice people while we were in the Galapagos. There was a family from Finland, a girl from Los Angeles, a guy from London, and a Canadian family. There was also Pedro our guide who knew lots about nature and the things were were seeing. While on the boat, we would hang out and watch movies with the girl from LA and the four kids from Canada. The kids from Canada knew how to play a card game called Magic, so we played a lot with them. Scott, the guy from London, reminded Darius how to play Texas Hold ‘Em. The Captain let us jump off the top level of the boat, which was bout 25 feet high. When we ate, we were all together and had a good time talking about the cool things we were seeing.

It was sad to leave the Galapagos. We will miss the islands, the animals, and the nice people we met. Now, we are off to the coast to rest for a few days.