Galapagos

We're waiting to board our flight to Buenos Aires, after a full day of exploring both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides of Iguazu Falls. The setting sun is gleaming off the jet bridge and our parents are chattering a few rows behind us at the gate.

Neither of us had much idea what to expect from the Galapagos. We crammed a couple of episodes of a BBC documentary about the islands when we woke up, still terribly jet-lagged, at three in the morning before heading to the Quito airport en route to San Cristobal.

There was something special about seeing the abstract factoids from the show—the birds that dive-bomb into the ocean like precision missiles, the lizards that periodically sneeze saltwater, the giant tortoises that took ten sailors to lift—come to life in front of us each day. It was also the first time in years that either of us spent a week living, eating, and exploring with a group of new people. We learned about all sorts of ways of life this week, both on the islands and in the dining room of our ship.

Prehistory

We spent our first full day on Genovesa Island, the tiny crescent-shaped tip of a partially-collapsed shield volcano. Colonies of storm petrels, red-footed and Nazca boobies (named for the Spanish word for dummy, given how easy they are to approach and catch), and frigatebirds circled above the ocean cliffs. With no other humans until the third island over, it felt like we were walking through prehistory that afternoon.

Desert islands

The convergence of the cold Humboldt and Cromwell currents with the warm Panama current creates an unusual climate on the islands. Despite being on the equator, the weather is temperate and arid for much of the year. Most of the islands don't have any freshwater, and the landscape is a collage of volanic rock, dormant palo santo trees, beaches, and cacti; I’m not sure this mish-mash exists anywhere else on the planet.

Nose to nose

We weren't sure what to expect when we found out that we would only be snorkeling, and not scuba diving, on the cruise. We got our answer pretty quickly. On a ride to one of our dive sites, Alice went rogue and jumped off our Zodiac after catching a glimpse of a mola mola fin peeking out over the water. While I didn't have the same killer instinct and missed seeing the giant fish, I did get to spend a few minutes playing with a curious seal lion not too long afterwards.

Survival instinct

The somewhat random introduction of species over time to the Galapagos—and the resulting lack of natural predators for most animals—combined with their isolation from humans imbued the local wildlife with a total absence of fear. We walked by nesting frigatebirds, swam next to sea turtles, and found sea lions and iguanas lounging on trails. The lack of survival instinct is so pronounced that sailors used to catch Galapagos doves for dinner just by putting a cup over them as they ambled by.

Family portrait

The guides called this a picture-perfect summary of the endemic wildlife on the islands. From where we stood, we could see Galapagos sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs, a Galapagos hawk, a Galapagos penguin, and a colony of marine iguanas—the world's only aquatic lizard—all against the volcanic rock and guano graffiti that was the backdrop of our week.

Life is never easy

Our trip started and ended with giant tortoises. With no natural predators, they can live for nearly two hundred years. Life in the Galapagos feels almost like the opposite of life in the Serengeti. On these islands, animals have nothing to fear, and their challenges come from the harsh environment—no freshwater, a lack of soil and vegetation—to which they can adapt over centuries or millennia without worrying about the environment fighting back. In the plains, despite a more lush landscape, the struggle for survival seems different, more brutal and adversarial; species adapt as others counter-adapt in a constant battle for new ways to eat and to avoid being eaten. Life is never easy, but a Galapagos tortoise’s was probably not so bad; at least, until humans showed up, not so long ago.