The most exciting news is that, of the 14 (I think) new permits for dive liveaboards in the Galapagos, the first one is now in the water!  The Humboldt Explorer got off to a slightly rocky start due to engine problems, but when will a new boat ever go into the water without some growing pains?  The important thing is that she is the first of the new dive permits to begin operation. 

Now, let’s backtrack for a moment. After a grueling period of accepting project applications for new liveaboards, the winners were named.  Almost immediately, a group that consisted on paper of fishermen, sued the National Park claiming the process of awarding the permits was both illegal and corrupt.  This case has lingered on for over a year and a decision is expected any day now from the Supreme Court.  If the Supreme Court upholds the permits, then things will move forward as they are tentatively proceeding now.  If, on the other hand, the Supreme Court decides in favor of the fishermen, well, the Park will need to open a new round of solitications and award permits all over again.

When people inside the Galapagos try to explain to people outside the Galapagos that it’s complicated or tricky, this is just one example of what they mean.  The Galapagos is perhaps the most regulated part of the planet that isn’t under some regime rule.  And with good reason.  As is often said, if we can’t save the Galapagos, then there’s no hope for anywhere on the planet.

Hard to imagine a negative outcome after so many invested years and so much money simply in the process of applying for a permit, but you never know.  One small example of what was one small part of the process was providing notarized copies of years worth of zarpes.  A zarpe is the document a boat receives every time it sails out of port…permission from the Capitania to depart, as it were.  Now if you are a daily dive operator, that means you get a zarpe every day of the week.  You can imagine the expense of notarizing a few thousand zarpes.  One person with a permit said that he was going to put all the documentation in his boat to see if it would sink the boat.

Another thing is that the Park intends to drastically regulate where any liveaboards can dive from 2011 on.  All cruises in the Galapagos are being regulated to 15 day itineraries. Cruise operators are free to break up this 15 days however they wish to -7/8; 5/5/5; 10/5, etc. Think of Day 1 as the same as Day 15 in that the boat is in a port to drop off passengers, refuel and pick up new passengers.  This is being done for the sustainable good of the sites being visited, whether the site is a land visit or dive site.

For Naturalist cruises, this means they cannot visit the same site twice during that 15 day itinerary.  For Naturalist cruises, this can mean a morning visit and an afternoon visit.  For dive cruises, it’s usually just drop off, refuel, pick up and check dive.  For dive cruises, the Park is using a study to determine how many groups per day will be allowed at any given dive site and how many groups at the same time at any given dive site. As of this writing, the intent is to limit dive cruises to 2 days at Darwin and 2 days at Wolf per 15 days.  They are also trying to restrict the number of dives per day at each location.  And as has been rumored for the better part of 2 years, it seems the Park will begin to enforce the ‘no non-land accessible land visits’ for dive cruises.  It seems those who do these now do plan to defend their current rights to make land visits.

So this is where my opinion comes in.  I have discussed this with various scientists, dive guides, etc.  No one so far offers me much in the way of argument that sufficiently alters my opinion.  Granted, we all know the old cliche about opinions, nevertheless…

There are about a handful of known sites left in the world where hammerheads school in numbers and the northern islands of Darwin and Wolf are two such sites.  In my opinion, the only thing that keeps the aleteros (shark finners) out is that the divers are there. There is one station at Wolf, a boat anchored in the bay called the Tiburon Martillo, a ‘floating base’. This was absent for the last 8 months while it went into dry dock for repairs.  There is no one patrolling Darwin, 3 hours away which is better known for larger hammerhead populations.  So if the divers aren’t there, no one is there to stop the massacre.

I don’t doubt for a moment that the presence of dive boats wards off illegal fishing. Just two weeks ago, I was at a site in the central islands rarely dived any more due to distance/expense for local operators.  Due to congestion, I couldn’t dive.  And while our divers were down, 3 illegal fishing boats came to fish.  That we, a sole boat, were there did not defer them for a moment.  Me yelling did nothing.  They just continued dropping their buoys about 30 feet away from the rock. When I grabbed a camera and started taking photos of their boats which they knew I could use to identify them, well that seemed to be much more effective than nicely asking or acting like a crazy gringa yelling.  With that, they covered their faces so they weren’t personally identifiable.  And when they realized I was changing into a wetsuit (with the intention of cutting and confiscating their buoys), they played me.  I was torn between getting photos of each boat and cutting bouys.  I opted for the photo which meant leaving the first bouy to get close enough to the other boats providing a window of opportunity for the first boat to return to gather their bouy.

Then, they waited at a distance for us to leave.  During the surface interval, I asked the captain to merely circle the island.  We would not be visible on the other side of the island and I was prepared to go into the water if they had their bouys out when we came back around.  Instead, miraculously another local dive boat showed up and with two boats there, the 3 fishing boats finally gave up and left.

Same theory applies on a much grander scale at Wolf and Darwin.  Count on Costa Rican aleteros finning to their heart’s content on days when no one is there.  And for the last few years, there have been lots of days when no one was there.  To me, logic says the diminished shark population most likely has more to do with open season from aleteros than divers in the water with sharks.  No one debates that in the central islands, so why the same logic is not  applied to an unpatrolled site like Darwin is beyond me.

So I say diving is the best protection the Darwin hammerhead population has against populations diminishing, not the enemy.  Divers who dive our northern islands are all advanced divers.  No one is allowed to act irresponsibly nor do most advanced divers want to abuse the wildlife.  Yes, way too many seem to have some twisted desire to touch whale sharks, but most boats wisely have a policy of “Touch the whale shark and your diving is over for the rest of the trip.”

Having said all that, I do agree wholeheartedly that how many boats are allowed to dive either Darwin or Wolf at the same time indeed should be limited to no more than 2.  And those 2 need to stagger their dive times so no more than 1 boat has divers in the water at the same time.  Granted, I say that more because I think it provides a far richer experience for the diver.  I have been at Darwin and Cabo Marshall with 32 divers in the water.  It’s no fun.  You can’t figure out who’s shaking their noise maker and to have 16 divers ascend on top of you is the last thing I, as a diver, want when I’m in a location as remote as these sites are in Galapagos.  In terms of site sustainability, you still have 32 divers in the water on any given day.  But we don’t have reefs to protect. And few are anything more than sideline spectators to the hammerheads.  Yes, bubbles scare them, but I would imagine that if they were that scared or susceptible to altered behavior due to bubbles on the sidelines of their arena, they would have altered their behavior years ago.  It’s not like diving there just started in the last couple of years. Time has passed and they’re still there.

I am also of the opinion that it is touching animals and interacting in a physical manner (feeding, touching, chasing, finning, fishing) that is more likely to alter their behavior than watching from a respectful distance.  I’m no scientist, just a diver, but that’s my opinion and if someone can share data that alters my opinion, I’m all ears.

Now, to further speak out in setting where no one speaks out, I find it amazing the liveaboards don’t contribute more towards local research and sustainability.  And I’m not limiting that to dive cruises.  Of the money that is generated by tourism in the Galapagos, studies show that only 15% stays in the Galapagos.  That there is not a per person fee that goes directly to research and sustainability is inconceivable in my opinion.

Let’s take a look at only the liveaboards.  With only the 5.5 boats now operational, let’s take a low capacity rate of 10 divers per departure.  10 divers x 5 boats x 12 months equals 600 divers per year.  Plus the seasonal departure of another 160 divers, you have conservatively 760 divers per year on liveaboards.  If every person was charged a $100 conservation fee, that’s $76,000 per year.  If every liveaboard offered space to scientists when they had available space, that would help even further.  I find it astounding that even today, no one knows where the whale sharks migrate to when they leave Darwin.  Astounding.  I think that the price of Galapagos liveaboards is so expensive, the operators themselves should be donating this rather than increasing the costs to guests since, although it is very costly to operate in the Galapagos, it’s abundantly clear it’s also very profitable.

One thing that I recently learned that I find relatively amazing is that, on the island best known for either shark finning or aiding and abetting those who do, it would only take the creation of 9 jobs…9 economic alternatives…to end shark finning.  Is there some reason these aleteros can’t transition to other jobs like counting baby shark populations, patrolling the coastal waterways as Park guards, etc?  The only answer is funding for training, for resources, etc.  And on a side note, I find one paradox intriquing.  There seem to be plenty of baby black tips in the mangroves and a scarcity of adults whereas there seem to be plenty of adult hammerheads and a scarcity of babies.

Every new permit includes a sustainability project commitment.  Every new permit holder is a fisherman.  Every new liveaboard must be owned (on paper) by that fishermen.  There’s been a long history of no regulations around those with cupos renting  to those who will pay them the most for the lease.  Under new regulations, that is now grounds for losing your permit.

One of the goals for sustainability has been to transistion fishermen to tourism.  It’s virtually the only economic alternative there is, but no one is offering enough training so these fishermen know anything about tourism.  So much of the culture thinks only in terms of what they can make immediately.  Understandable since they have lead a life that was day to day up until now.  And now, long term vision through education is lacking.  Imagine giving construction contracts for skyscrapers to homeless people as a way to get them off the street in New York City and it’s not a far stretch in terms of an analogy.  A better analogy might be a gun or needle exchange programs since exchanging fishing permits for points towards winning a ‘tur navegable de buceo” permit was a primary way for fishermen to win points.  And those with the highest points won the permits.  Intentions are admirable, but there’s a cliche about that, too.

The good news is that the onus is actually now on the liveaboards themselves to hire and train locals, in a regulatory fashion.  Too many operators up until now bring people from the mainland where trained talent is more common than in the islands themselves.  Tightening up on that will both reduce immigration and direct more income to the local economy as opposed to the 85% that never reaches the Galapagos.  So things are certainly changing relative to how it’s been.  It seems the intentions are good, so we can only hope the results play out for the common good of both the environment and the population. And of course, each operator should more proactively do their part to contribute to a positive outcome.

I think sometimes it’s better to come from the outside rather than be bogged down by full knowledge of all the politics that more often than not, clog the wheel rather than grease it.  Doesn’t always make life smoother to voice an opinion when a code of silence is all but law, but some of us are just wired that way, much to our own discomfort.

Whale Shark Galapagos

Well, at least in the north at Darwin.  People always want to know what the conditions are like in the north and current reports are not so easy to come by.  So we thought we would begin offering reports here.  Granted, once you leave the central islands on the trip up to Darwin and Wolf, there’s no cell signal which means our reports are limited to once a week.

Week:  July 12, 2010:

• Water is still unseasonably cold:  20 at Wolf and 25 at Darwin.  Reported 18 air/ water temps at N. Seymour.
  
• 12 large whale shark sightings at Darwin, including a pregnant female.
  
• Reported ‘thousands’ of hammerheads
  
• Cabo Marshall  without viz, maybe 2 meters.  Too green from algae.

In the central islands, cold water temps (18-20) with thermoclines as low as 15.  Lots of hammerheads and Mantas at Gordon Rocks.

August 2010:

I was out in the islands for most of the month.  Water temperature in the central islands is 16-18 C on average with dreadful visibility in green chunky water.  Air temps were also chillier than normal with 18-19 C being the norm in the evenings.  Many days without sunshine in the garua season making viz even more difficult.  We don’t know whether the wildlife is there and you just can’t see it or if activity is diminished.   In any event, for 2 weeks of non-stop diving in the central islands, it was consistently bad everywhere.   Yes, some sharks, mantas, lots of rays, baitballs, plenty of turtles and large schools of barracudas still visible…which just goes to show you how spoiled we are when that equals lame.

Up at Darwin and Wolf,  the month offered very mixed reports.  It swung from thousands of hammerheads and a dozen whalesharks at Darwin to 20 hammerheads and 1 whaleshark at Darwin.  Last week (Aug. 16-23) , I had very mixed reports from 2 boats in the same week.  Aboard Galapagos Sky,  reports of very few hammerheads and some whalesharks at Darwin with maybe 20 hammerheads and not much else at Wolf.  Dive Guide from Humboldt Explorer reported thousands of hammerheads at Wolf (not Darwin) along with a pod of 20 Orcas caressing the pangas.  Everyone reports bad visibility and cold water.

What I’ve been saying since late May / early June is finally official:  La Nina is here post El Nino…which accounts for the unseasonably cold water, but no one seems to know for sure why such horrible visibility.  Best guess is major upwelling events being dispersed throughout the islands.  Best viz I’ve heard of all month was 40 ft (12 mts) at Darwin.  Most places are under 20 ft (5 mts) viz.  Typically, diminished visibility equals more wildlife due to the nutrient rich water, but when viz is 10 – 15 ft, even if there’s a school of 500 hammerheads nearby, you can’t necessarily see them.   Official reports expect La Nina to continue for the next 2-3 months at least.

Aug. 23-30.  Reports of thousands of hammerheads at Darwin, barely a dive when they weren’t in sight.  Whale sharks, Mantas at Cabo Marshall.  Water temp at Darwin 24C  and a mere 15C at Cousins causing several to bail on Dive 2.  In other words, your standard week diving the Galapagos on a liveaboard.

During the first year of operations within the domestic marketplace, more than 500,000 passengers have chosen LAN Ecuador as the air carrier for their domestic travel needs between the cities of Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca. In September of this year, the airline will expand its portfolio of domestic destinations by adding service to the Galapagos Islands.

This announcement also marks LAN Ecuador ’s 7th anniversary of flight operations in the country and connecting the country internationally to the United States, Europe, Chile and Argentina. Between domestic and international travel, LAN Ecuador has transported more than 1,000,000 passengers over the past last twelve months.

The company provides service to domestic destinations aboard a modern fleet of Airbus A320s that are engineered with the most advanced technology in the industry to help decrease the effects of global warming.

Recently released statistics from Ecuador’s Civil Aviation Authority reveal that the company has received the highest marks for punctuality and reliability at the local level. At the same time, the domestic airline industry has grown an average of about 15% year on year, driven significantly by LAN Ecuador on domestic routes. This is an example that air travel has become more accessible in this market and is being widely used by passengers in the country.

During this same period of time, customers have recognized and awarded LAN Ecuador for its high quality of service. Recently, the Charles Darwin Foundation recognized the company as one of the 100 Partners of the Galapagos.

The company has a team of approximately 1,000 employees dedicated to providing world-class service and product offering to its passengers and domestic customers.  LAN Airlines and its affiliates, including LAN Ecuador, are members of the oneworld global airline alliance which brings together the best global companies. oneworld allows LAN Ecuador to offer its passengers the full range of benefits and connectivity of this alliance. Passengers can earn frequent flyer miles and redeem mileage awards on all oneworld airlines, as well facilitating access to over 550 airport lounges around the world.

“We are very proud of the preference our passengers and clients have shown us. It serves to reaffirm our commitment to offering an excellent product that provides connectivity and opportunities for economic and social development for Ecuador. We will continue to promote the attractive tourist destinations and help to grow exports with a special concern for the preservation of the environment. It is of great satisfaction to be able to deliver world-class service that is valued by the people of Ecuador. We want to be an airline that is a source of pride for the country,” said Maximilian Naranjo, General Manager of LAN Ecuador.

Source: Travel Daily News http://bit.ly/9EXA6b

I thought I would begin simply by copying our scubaboard exchange:

posted:…Definitely worth visiting but if you’re serious about the environment, think carefully. The inhabitants of the island (15000 in Porto Ayora and 8000 on San Cristobel) are only there because of tourism and the damage these settlements is doing to the islands is evident – trash goes to land fill on Santa Cruz and there is no sewage treatment – it’s just pumped into the sea in a long brown slick. Water treatment must surely be a priority for these towns else they risk destroying the very marine habitat the tourism and land wildlife so depends upon.

If you’re not part of the the solution – you’re part of the problem

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DTG: I always love reading dive trip reports, especially from the Galapagos, but I’m afraid I have to ask why visitors think cruises are a ‘greener’ choice than anything land based? Add them all up and all of the food scraps and sewage (and sometimes worse) from roughly 3000 people per week are going into the Marine Reserve. Annually, that’s more than 6 times the population who lives there. Townspeople don’t spill fuel nor motor 24/7 (therefore burning that much fossil fuel) nor toss big anchors and damage the undersea environment.

New permits mandate sewage holding tanks, etc, but even with laws in place to protect the environment, there’s no one around to enforce such regulations once boats are out to sea. The law already states that boats must finely grind food scraps before dumping at sea and yet, I’ve seen whole pieces being tossed. There’s a reason sharks, etc always accompany the boats.

I do think the more often visitors like yourself remind others of the need to be as environmentally conscious as possible, the better things will be. Once visitors themselves demand it by choosing only those companies who truly are environmentally sound, well a company’s financial well being will always be the single largest source of motivation for most. Most visitors make their choice by reputation or price. The visitor who inquires into environmental policies falls into a very small percentage overall.

To me, land-based vs cruise isn’t the issue. Both have a long way to go and cudos to those, both on land and at sea, who are getting there or are there.

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posted: You make some good points. Since you have business in the Galapogos, I assume you have some knowledge about the operations that go there. Which Op’s would you recommend as being environmentally friendly? Which are not?

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DTG: I think you might ask that question again a year from now. With new cupos, the National Park mandates many boat upgrades that will protect the Marine Reserve. For many, it is a difficult financial strain in these tough economic times, but to keep their permits, no choice but to comply. This applies to small local boats, too.

Ecoventura owner Santiago Dunn is a true pioneer in environmentally sound practices in the Galapagos on his Naturalist cruises/boats. They are the local partners for SkyDancer.

As one Galapagos owner said to me, “You know we Ecuadorians don’t care anything about being green.” While there are some exceptions to that mentality, it is the stereotypical norm. It is also cultural – as it is cultural that travelers often ask many questions, but rarely do those questions include queries about a company’s sustainability practices.

As someone once had to remind me, it was in my youth that “Don’t Litter” campaigns first began in the US. It used to be perfectly acceptable to throw your cans and garbage out the window. Imagine how ridiculous that seems to us now? Someone reminded me of “Give a Hoot…Don’t Pollute.” There’s a joke here in Ecuador about bus drivers warning you not to litter the bus, but rather throw it out the window. That’s the cultural context.

Now the owner learned that it’s good for marketing purposes, so went along with changes. Others are being mandated by the Park. Bottom line…the motivation doesn’t have to be pure as long as the results are the same. And as long as there is progress…which many are now making…I think that deserves support in order to inspire further progress.

Again, guests being vocal speaks volumes. Everyone asks for feedback. Give it to them. Ask why don’t companies include environmental practices feedback on their customer feedback forms? Or use the open comments sections to make unprompted observations about environmental practices.

As part of permit applications, everyone had to submit a sustainability plan. I doubt anyone has translated theirs to English. On most live-aboard websites now, you can find a scan of their PNG permit. That can be directly attributed to travelers insisting upon it after the 2007 fiasco. If enough people asked, perhaps sustainability plans would be posted, too.

And ps… even if management is solid in their environmental philosophy, the day to day task is up to locals, most of whom think ‘more = better.’ As in “What do you mean that organic cleaner is concentrated and we’re only supposed to use a tiny bit? Why when we can splash on the cheap clorox in such abundance?”

Maybe there should be a list of questions travelers could pose…beginning with insisting all companies include feedback on their environmental practices on their own customer feedback forms.

1. Do you use biodegradable: soaps, shampoos, cleaning products and especially plastic bags?
2. Do you use clorox?
3. Do you have black water holding tanks?
4. How is your food disposed of? Describe the process.
5. What do you recycle and how?
6. Do you use chemical bug spray?
7. How do you protect the marine environment when you anchor?
8. How many supplies are shipped to you each week from the mainland vs purchased locally?
9. How do you purchase your seafood? (Any suppliers known to have been involved with shark finning, illegal sea cucumber fishing?)
10. Do you heat your pool or jacuzzi with solar panels?
11. How do you support the local community?

IMHO…no non-biodegradable plastic bags should even be allowed in the Galapagos. No clorox, no bug spray, no air fresheners, no styrofoam, etc. I could go on a little too long about this. In my former position, I had the unenviable and often frustrating position of being labeled the ‘green police.’ But after some time, there were huge changes relative to when I began.

Again, it is changing in general and that’s the good news. But primarily due to demand, be it PNG or travelers. Having said that, many forget sustainable includes people, not just the environment. And many now greenwash their marketing efforts.

What traveler can actually check anything once you’re there and focused on your own activities? Who wants to be the green police? And do companies say they support the local community or do it? Even if you ask for references to support their claim, how do you go about tracking them down to verify…call their Ecuador cell phone? Uh huh.

Locals often get paid less (and sometimes not at all) from those who have the most. And if they want the continued business, they get to shut up and take it. Again, cultural. On mainland Ecuador, there is a healthy middle class, not so true in the Galapagos. It’s only been 11 years since the special law was enacted to protect the Galapagos and Galapaguenos. And so the process is ever evolving.

Certain groups of providers do pretty much establish pricing, but others don’t have that collective power. Sorry…this is a raw nerve and one that no one talks about because the other thing about the Galapagos is that there is the equivalent to the proverbial ‘blue code’ in the US. And if no one talks about it for fear of essentially being the snitch (and the Galapagos is so very small so you can imagine how hard it could be to continue operating under such conditions), how can it change? Certain practices remain in place and will remain until visitors themselves demand the change, imho. And, unfortunately, promotion by attraction doesn’t grab the attention that pointing out problems seems to, thus the catch 22.

We need both…the eco-leaders like Santiago Dunn and a means for visitors to get more involved in the solution by becoming savvy travelers and demanding it from operators.

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posted: Thank you for a very thorough answer DTG. Our LDS has a trip in Sept that I am part of. I think I will bring your article to them and see what they think about asking those very important questions. The trip is scheduled and paid for already, so changing Ops is not an option (as most Galapagos trips need to be- far in advance) but maybe we can get the ball rolling and hope that the locals see the long term benefit of a more environmentally friendly attitude.

Thanks for all the information.

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For more information, check wikipedia’s definitions and links:

Responsible Tourism and Ethical Consumerism

I have to agree with what I’m reading online…2009 was the year of shark awareness, but 2010 is going to be the year of shark action.  While there was progress made globally, it’s a mere pittance of what needs to happen to save sharks from extinction.

A great place to start is http://stopsharkfinning.net. On this site, you will find primarily anti-shark finning campaigns you get can involved with,  lists of restaurants that serve shark fin soup, encouraging success stories…how individual and groups have made a difference towards the end of this slaughter and  the site has such a great collection of links that I  don’t have to recreate them all right here.

We at Dive The Galapagos are big believers in keeping it local.  Our first step has been to get involved with the Galapagos canine unit, so far,  supported only by Sea Shepherd and us.  These dogs are trained to sniff out shark fins, sea cucumbers, sea horses and more.   The island where shark finning is still happening in the Galapagos is primarily Isabela.  The National Police were able to put 3 dogs on Isabela as of October.  The dogs receive death threats there.  We have more plans for actions in the Galapagos that we will announe as the year unfolds.

PNG (Parque Nacional Galapagos) had lots of Puerto Ayora meetings last week.  Bottom line for land-based dive shops…unless you have been awarded a new cupo (permit), you are not permitted to operate past October 15, 2009.

PNG has a total of 24 Class 1 land-based dive permits to award and 16 Class 2 permits.  It seems the difference is based primarily in the size of the boat with Class 1 being larger and therefore permitted to depart one port and arrive at another.  Class 2 boats are smaller and therefore only permitted to return to the same port from which they departed.  These permits are the total permits available for all 4 populated islands, not per island.  With PNG, of course, this is all subject to change, but is where it stands right now.

They will also be awarding 14 permits for live-aboards.  Currently, only 6 boats have that permit and I believe most of those are through Jan. 2010.  Though it was to have been put in place before, it is possible that with new 2010 permits for live-aboards, no land visits will be permitted.  Seems tur navegable permits are for diving or land visits and never the twain shall meet…in theory.  Strong rumors about limiting Wolf/Darwin time to 2 days, but that’s rumor at this point.

Some cupos will be conditionally awarded meaning owners will have 3 years to comply with certain mandatory qualifications such as an environmental impact study, an investment some could not/did not want to make merely for the possibility.  Of those who have been awarded new cupos (not all available have been awarded yet), the contract with the National Park will be good for 15 years, however, boats must undergo many improvements.  Seems the rules for day tour boats are as imposing as cruise boats…holding tanks for black water, eco engines, etc.  All good for the Marine Reserve, but quite imposing for some small boat owners.  As one said to me, “I’m going to put all this paperwork in my boat to see if it will sink.”

How to begin about a topic that covers the beginnings of time, evolution, whalers, pirates, pioneers, the US Navy, endemic species and tourism today? That’s the task at hand where Isla Floreana in the Galapagos is concerned. On the surface, in many ways Floreana might seem the most boring of the islands. Then again, baseball might seem like a boring sport to anyone who does not realize the incredible intelligence involved in the sport. You have to be well-informed and do your homework to truly appreciate how remarkable either (baseball or Floreana) is. Without further ado, I’ll try to put the awe I feel about Floreana into context.

Floreana is today the least populated of the populated islands in the Galapagos with 170 residents, however, it was the first to be settled. As you approach from the sea, you will be able to see what has drawn sailors for centuries – one green hill in the middle of an otherwise seemingly brown and lifeless isolated Pacific isle. Most of the early travelers who wrote about the Galapagos usually said the same thing in their own emphatic way…what an uninviting, unappealing place!

But, unlike most of the other Galapagos islands where water was not a year round assurance, Floreana has an artisian spring that drips out of the rocks consistently enough to have formed a deep indentation where today, moss hangs down like lace where the water trickles out. That trickle has been the beacon of Floreana for centuries.

While Thor Heyerdahl wanted the world to believe that the Incas actually managed to paddle 600 nautical miles out from the Ecuador coast to leave evidence of their visit, most seem to doubt his findings. It is generally established that the Galapagos Islands were first discovered by a Spanish priest in 1535.

Due to Spaniards transporting Peruvian gold through Panama, Tomas de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama, was in route to Peru when his ship went adrift in a dead calm sea and the currents pulled him westward. Thus the Bishop accidentally discovered the Galapagos. In a letter to the King of Spain, the bishop described the islands by saying: “I do not think this is a place where one might sow a bushel of corn because most of it is full of very big stones and the earth is much like dross, worthless, because it has not the power of raising a little grass”. The bishop and his crew, like many early visitors, were less then impressed by the lack of water. He didn’t even bother to give the islands a name. It wasn’t until 1574 that the name “Galapagos Islands” first appeared on a map. “Galapago” is an old Spanish word, meaning saddle. The giant Galapagos Tortoises had a shell that resembled an old Spanish saddle, thus the name.

During the 1500 and 1600’s, the west coast of South America was prize Pirate territory. As Spain was busy collecting the wealth of the Incas and shipping it home, the Buccaneers (or Pirates depending on whose side you were on) would attack the Spanish treasure ships to steal the ships’ riches. The Galapagos Islands became a favorite hideout for these Pirates. They could plunder and then hide out in any number of island coves, easily eluding the Spaniards. The islands of Floreana, Santa Cruz and Santiago became favorite spots due to fresh water and fresh meat. Almost every single accounting from this era onward describes the meat of the giant tortoises as delicious.

By 1792, British whalers reached the Galapagos. Upwelling currents around the islands made the Galapagos an excellent feeding ground for whales. Each whaling ship would collect between 500-600 tortoises to provide fresh meat for their crews. It has been written that “whaling skippers were almost lyrical in their praise of tortoise meat, terming it far more delicious than chicken, pork or beef”. They said the meat of the giant tortoise was “succulent meat and the oil from their bodies as pure as butter, but best of all, the giants could hibernate in a ship’s damp for a year or more.”

Whalers landed in Floreana to replenish stock and headed to the highlands to carve temporary dwellings out of the soft rock. Visitors today often tag these caves as “the Stonehenge of the Galapagos” due to their appearance. It is estimated that whaling ships removed 15,000 tortoises from Floreana causing the extinction of that subspecies. The whalers also created problems that would long survive them; they introduced a number of animals to the Galapagos including the black rat, cats, cattle, donkeys, goats and dogs. Between the years of 1811 and 1844, it is thought some 700 whaling ships visited these islands. Damage to the Galapagos environment by the whalers was unprecedented.

In 1807, Galapagos received its first resident. Irishman Patrick Watkins arrived on the island of Floreana marooned at sea. For two years he lived from growing vegetables and selling his produce to passing ships. It is said he constantly begged for transportation off the island to no avail. Eventually he stole a ship’s longboat, taking some of the sailors with him, however only he arrived at Guayaquil on the continent, no doubt the beginning of the pattern of mysterious human tragedy that would be associated with Floreana moving forward.

Whalers established “Hathaway’s Post Office” on Floreana in 1812 as a means of communicating with their families. Because the ships were out 2 years at a time, ships that were on their way back home would pick up letters placed in a barrel at the ‘post office’ and deliver them upon arrival. During the Anglo-American war of 1812, An American naval captain heard that British ships were cruising the Galapagos, so he deftly headed for Post Office Bay and picked up all the mail waiting to be delivered which provided him with a virtual roster of the British whaling ships in the area. He then planted false letters of his own and soon was able to capture 12 enemy vessels, destroying a million tons of enemy cargo. For the early settlers of the 20th century, the Floreana Post Office would be their only communication with the outside world, even if a ship didn’t pass for six months. The time-honored tradition of the Floreana Post Office continues to this day as visitors see what letters are bound for their home countries and either mail them once back home or, in some rare cases, hand-deliver them as was done for centuries.

Since it’s discovery and for over 300 years, the Galapagos were a political no man’s land. Then, in 1832, Ecuador gained its independence and annexed the Galapagos Islands, renaming them the “Archipelago del Ecuador” and changing the islands’ English names to Spanish names. Floreana was named after Venezuelan born General Juan Jose Flores who had become Ecuador’s first President in 1830.

The Galapagos had a famous visitor in 1841, Herman Melville of Moby Dick fame, who wrote of his travels to the Galapagos in a series of published articles called, “The Encantadas“. Melville’s visit to Floreana is included in the articles. In much of his text, Melville rewrote what others had written before him, so how much he experienced versus how much he ‘borrowed’ is still unclear. For example, it is interesting to compare different versions of what became ‘the legend’ of Patrick Watkins‘ escape from the Galapagos with Melville’s version apparently having far more mass appeal in its day. One famous explorer and writer who had come before Melville was safe from plagiarism, William Dampier, probably due to what a fine writer Dampier was unlike the others Melville borrowed from who were more seaman than authors.

William Dampier was a world-renowned explorer and excellent writer who often sailed with pirate ships as a means of financing his voyages. He came to the Galapagos a full century and one half before Darwin and offered many vivid descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Galapagos, however, after what might be considered a scientific or naturalist summary, inevitably the focus was followed by a culinary review of the worthiness of the animals’ meat. Apparently his favorites were the Galapagos tortoise and the Galapagos dove. He published quite a bit about the Galapagos in his book, “A New Voyage Round the World“.

It wasn’t until the 1930’s that Floreana was more than temporarily settled. And that was when worlwide fame came to visit and all hell began to break loose.

Trekking to Volcan Sierra Negra and Volcan Chico is a definite highlight of Darwin’s Triangle!  The following is a superb account of trekking up Volcan Sierra Negra and over to Volcan Chico written by Rebecca Newman for the London Financial Times.

When Herman Melville arrived on the Galapagos, he thought it an “evilly enchanted ground … looking as the world might after a penal conflagration”. After a five-mile hike to the highest point of the westerly island of Isabela, the landscape seems to me more like a furnace-baked work of surrealist art, its black lava fields rising into volcanic cones, yellow sulphur hissing around the rims.

Unlike the cruise-ship stampede, I have not come to the Galapagos simply to see the wildlife. The blue-footed boobies and giant tortoises that so famously inspired Darwin’s theories can wait for another trip. I have come for the volcanoes. More specifically, for volcano trekking.

At around one million years old, Isabela is the teenager of the archipelago. Its 100km length is made up of six large, shallow-sided volcanoes, five of which are active. In 2005, the biggest, Sierra Negra, exploded in an eruption that lasted for eight days, spewing out 150 million cubic metres of magma.

When I meet our guide, Julio, at the bottom of the Sierra Negra trail, he tells me he climbed up during the eruption to admire the molten lake of lava.

“Did you not evacuate?” I ask.

“There is no evacuation plan for the island in an emergency,” he replied. “In any case, there aren’t enough boats.”

We set off regardless, carving a path through rich soil banks. The greens of the undergrowth are spangled with wet cobwebs and purple verbena flowers. The humidity catches in my lungs. As we climb, the temperature drops and we soon reach the flat track along the cusp of Sierra Negra’s caldera (the large depression where a volcano peak has collapsed into a wide crater). As we peer over the edge, it falls away into a dark expanse only vaguely discernible through the mist.

The drop is fringed with guava trees shrouded in moss, which hangs off their branches like so many ancient beards. They look as if they’ve been there for ever, but in fact they are an invasive newcomer, having taken hold in the past 30 years. Native flora and fauna are highly vulnerable, both to eruptions and to alien species. In the 17th century, pirates used the islands for shelter as they lay in wait for Spanish galleons returning home laden with Inca gold. They took thousands of giant tortoises for food and also brought foreign species such as rats and goats, which ate tortoise eggs and hatchling birds. This, combined with the thousands of tourists who visit the islands each year, poses a serious threat to the Galapagos ecosystem.

An eight-year project led by the Charles Darwin Foundation recently eradicated 150,000 goats from Isabela. Tracker dogs and puppies, equipped with specially made boots to protect their paws from the lava, were used to trace the feral herds.

As we reach the highest point of the rim, 1,490m above sea level, the clouds finally curl back to reveal the great sweep of the caldera. At 70 sq km, it is the second largest in the world. Near the base, it is strewn with dead trees, their branches like bleached skeletons.

From the summit, we descend towards Volcan Chico, a collection of smaller cones in the flank of Sierra Negra. There is a hum of crickets and birdsong. I pick out a cluster of Darwin’s finches on a soap tree. Painted grasshoppers jump from leaf to leaf. A pair of Galapagos doves, their feet bright red and eyes blue-rimmed, look up unafraid from the path. As it warms up the guara, or drizzle, turns to thick equatorial rain.

Suddenly, the landscape changes. We leave behind the vegetation and clamber up a carmine-black wall of boulders, ash and cinder. Ahead is a solidified ocean of lava, like a petrified ploughed field. Julio tells us this spiked surface is called aa, from the Hawaiian for “stony with rough lava”. Early explorers found the aa ripped the leather from their shoes. Julio even wrote to me while I was still in the UK warning me to bring substantial footwear. My soles are surviving, but still I envy the puppies their boots.

The ground has been shaped over the centuries by a series of eruptions. Each flow has a different texture; it is like walking from one planet to another. Breaking up the aa are rivers of smooth pahoehoe – Hawaiian for “smooth unbroken lava” – where the lava didn’t ruffle as it cooled. The vegetation is sparse; the occasional thousand-year-old candelabra cactus has dodged the various eruptions, and stands erect on the horizon.

With rain still heavy on our backs, we kneel to inspect the deep fissures in the ground and partially eroded lava tunnels. (The outside of a stream of lava can cool and solidify, its centre continuing to flow, leaving a hollow tube.) One of the tunnels is intact. I crawl through it, admiring the stalactites on its interior. The ground is hot under my knees, the heat coming from the earth’s core.

I put my hand on a rock and am scalded by a puff of steam rising from a fumerole. The vapour has suckled a clump of fern, a solitary pioneer in this harsh landscape.

Further on, we reach another flow. Where the younger lava was black, this older layer is magenta, whipped like icing into billowing folds. As it has eroded, its metal content has oxidised, speckling the lava crimson and purple; it is studded with gold and silver-coloured particles which glitter in the light. When we reach the edge of Chico, the rain stops. Bouncing off the hard, silent surfaces is a peculiar tinkling sound, as the cinders dry in the sun. Gratefully, we sit down on the scree and unwrap our ham sandwiches. From nowhere a lizard joins us, a white butterfly in its mouth.

The journey down is easier, faster and drier. Drunk on the surroundings, it’s a relief to turn off the camera and stride out. We make good time, arriving at the bottom with burning muscles, covered in dust, dirt and burrs, ready for an octopus ceviche and a cold cerveza.

Next day, we trek over an aa field on the edge of the sea. Marine iguanas bask in the sun. Peering into a collapsed lava tunnel flooded with seawater, we see a group of basking female white-tipped reef sharks. The same volcanic tubes I climbed into on Chico are now visible under the sea, covered in seaweed. Here they host sea lion pups as they gambol in the surf.

The Galapagos are rightly famous for their native inhabitants. The wildlife on the archipelago is remarkable. But their topography is equally thought-provoking. As an exercise for mind and body, you couldn’t better a few days spent trekking through this magical, primeval place.

copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

2. Please avoid the introduction of foreign organisms such as animals, seeds, plants and insects as they cause serious problems.

3. Galápagos animals should not be touched or petted for your safety and because they can quickly loose their tameness and change their behaviour.

4. The endemic and native fauna of Galápagos has its natural form for feeding. Therefore, do not give them any type of food because it could harm them.

5. The Galápagos marine birds leave their nests if you disturb or follow them. They will let their eggs or chicks alone on the ground or leave them exposed to the sun. Therefore you may watch the birds at a distance of no less than two meters.

6. Visitors’ sites at the Galápagos National Park are marked to guarantee your safety. You cannot leave the paths.

7. Garbage of any type interferes with natural processes and takes away the enchantment of the unique island scenery. Do not dispose garbage at visitors’ sites, in the ocean or near the islands.

8. Please avoid purchasing souvenirs made of flora and fauna of the islands, like black coral, marine tortoise shells, sea lion teeth, or shells. This goes against the principles of conservation.

9. Writing names and phrases of any type on rocks, walls, etc. is a sign of bad manners and rudeness and damages the scenery.

10. Fire or smoking within Park areas is not allowed as a fire could start with a match or a cigarette that is not put out completely, and can cause uncontrollable bushfires, death and destruction.

11. Fishing on board tourist ships is not permitted. Please collaborate with the National Park Service by reporting any transgression to the management of the Galápagos National Park.

12. If you want to camp in the authorized sites or do comercial filming, you have to request a permit from the Galápagos Nacional Park Director. Please contact us at any of our technical offices located in the inhabited islands (San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Isabela, and Floreana).

13. If any kind of danger puts at risk the visitor’s safety and that of the National Park, please inform a Park Ranger, Police authorities, Ecuadorian Navy, Air Force or any Municipal Authority.

14. Don’t be embarrassed to show your conservationist attitude. Explain to others the rules of Galápagos National Park and make them follow them.

Important recommendations:

1. In order to enjoy your stay in Galápagos you should be in good health.

2. Visit the areas of the Galápagos National Park and the Marine Reserve only when escorted by a naturalist guide licensed by the National Park Service.

3. If you go scuba diving, please make sure that you have all documents and licenses to do so.

4. Watch out for signs and instructions in the authorized visitor sites of the Galápagos National Park and please follow them.

5. Contract tourist services only at travel agencies and tour operators legally recognized in Galápagos.

6. National and foreign visitors are allowed to stay on the islands for 90 days (3months) per year as established in the Special Law for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Galápagos Islands.

It takes about an hour to get to Los Tuneles from Puerto Villamil, but what a glorious hour it is!  There is an oceanic path of sorts that is primarily shallow water near the shore.  So on the way, we got to see giant manta on the surface, so many sea turtles I was afraid we might run over one, and of course, those vistas on the land.

[View with PicLens]

The backdrop began like most views in Isabela with Volcan Sierra Negra looming.  Other obvious cones began to appear as we headed south.  As we neared an outcrop of rocks called Roca Union, the boat slowed so we could take in the Nazca Boobies and Blue-Footed Boobies perched side by side. If you’ ve made it out this far into the Galapagos, by now you’ve begun to take the sea lions for granted.  In the water were thousands of yellow tailed grunts schooling at the surface.  There were so many that were so vivid, I could capture the image with just a point and shoot camera.

As we continued on, the giant mantas began to appear at the surface.  They seemed to glide near the surface to sun their wingtips.  Sea turtles were so common that the only time we stopped was to capture an image of two mating.

Entering Los Tuneles can apparently be a tricky affair, but we were lucky and arrived on a day when the ocean was so tame, you barely felt like you were surfing in by boat along the breakers.  Just before we entered, we witnessed a pair of eagle rays mating at the surface, something the local guide said he had never even seen before.  It almost seemed a violent affair given the amount of flapping.

Inside the breakers, the water is calm, shallow and crystal clear.  They were right!  It is like snorkeling in an aquarium!  First, we passed through the labyrinth of lava tubes that had spilled over into the sea.  Time and the ocean has created a maze of these tubes, many of which are now lava arches with narrow passes above the sea.  Some are still intact and it was one of these where we landed and walked for a bit while viewing 2 active volcanoes in the background.  To the south was Cerro Azul which last erupted in May 2008 and to the north was Sierra Negra which last erupted in October 2005.  It was as though we were right in the center of these magestic volcanoes and not another sign human beings inhabited the planet was anywhere to be found.

While walking above the water and seeing white-tipped reef sharks was nice, we were anxious to get in the water and snorkel.  We headed back out towards the breakers to begin in between lava tubes where we saw schools of many thousands of salemas and yellow tailed grunts.  After swimming through one school that would have blacked out the sun had they been above me, I spotted two sea turtles which I slowly approached and was able to view at leisure from a distance of maybe 4 feet.  In places, you can swim under the water and through an arch into something akin to a cave without a roof, open to the sky, an area colorful angelfish seemed to favor.

Then, our guide began heading back to the boat.  Since we had only been in the water about 10 minutes and now knew how much of Los Tuneles we were yet to see after the boat tour through the labyrinth, we were not a cooperative group.  Apparently, he had an injury that prohibited him from swimming for very long, but at that point, we didn’t feel like he was needed, so he returned to the boat and we kept on snorkeling for as long as we wanted.   I think I heard this trip normally leaves around 9AM and returns around 1PM.  We got back around 3:45.  I LOVE that we could.  Imagine being on a cruise and saying, “We’re not ready to leave… we’d like to stay here longer.”  They would have to say some version of, “Nope…run along with your group now.”  To me, this trip is a perfect example of how land-based programs offer more flexibility than cruises.

As we continued snorkeling, I swam up to a rock where 3 blue-footed boobies were resting.  I was about 2 feet below them.  They just looked at me.  I saw so many different types of tropical fish that I’m now motivated to learn enough to be able to identify a lot of the fish in the Galapagos.  And for me, the height of snorkeling glory was seeing the penguins!  Only in the Galapagos folks, only in the Galapagos can you snorkel with penguins and tropical fish!  I remain madly in love with the idea of being up close and personal in crystal clear water beneath two active volcanoes when I get to witness where tropical meets polar.

As if that were not enough, we were also joined by a lone, young sea lion who seemed overjoyed to have company.  He would not leave us alone!  I suppose I was so captivated by him and the experience of him that I completely forgot to ask anyone in the boat to grab my camera because I have no photos of the most amazing time I’ve ever had snorkeling with a sea lion.

They are such fluidly smooth acrobats under the water that they can turn on a dime.  Still, he seemed to especially enjoyed heading straight for my mask only to turn away mere inches from my face.  Though you have to love the experience, it is still a bit disconcerting to have an animal heading into my face at that proximity.  I did enjoy it when he decided to just swim upside down only a couple of inches below the surface and about 2 feet to my right side.  He just watched me as we swam alongside together.  My son later told me of him coming up underneath him and then turning around and just watching him once he was about two feet in front.  He stayed with us long enough for me to call out to the other snorkeler I couldn’t even see did join us a few minutes later and the sea lion was just as happy for more company.  This little guy swam with us for at least 10 minutes.

I was so happy to have had the experience.  For awhile, that Galapagos National Park had closed Los Tuneles was to visitors.  Boats are required to have a special permit to enter, one reserved exclusively for artisanal fishing since lobsters are abundant among the lava tubes.  And large lobsters as you also see when snorkeling.  So very few boats have the permit and for awhile, it was completely closed.  It had only reopened a few days before we arrived.  Boats are limited to five passengers and while it is not necessary to take a guide, none of the boats with permits have captains who speak English.

Los Tuneles is perhaps the most amazing place I have ever visited on this planet!  This is another perfect example of how the Galapagos always exceed your expectations. If you get the chance…DO NOT MISS IT!!  If you go, you will never forget it.  I look at the guest book inside Red Mangrove Isabela Lodge and saw others who talked about that as the highlight of their trip in spite of the rather steep price tag  which is due to the small number of boats with permits and the small number of passengers they are limited to.  One guest had written that it was expensive, but so worth it.  How right he is.