South America,  Ecuador,  Travel

Galapagos Islands (Isabela)

June 26, 2021 /

Fly from Quito to the Galápagos Islands today. When flying from the United States to Ecuador, there is no need for a negative test result if you have a vaccine certificate, but you must have a negative test result when flying from the mainland mainland to the Galapagos Islands. There were two brothers sitting next to each other on the plane, one lived in San Francisco, the other lived in Oregon, and one of them was also a teacher on summer vacation. There was also a large group of high school students from the United States on the same flight. After the plane lands, take the bus to the port, change to a boat to one of the main islands, and then take the bus to the city center on the south side of the island. On the boat, I heard a local person next to me say that although only the elderly in mainland Ecuador have been vaccinated, nearly 100% of people over the age of 18 in this archipelago have been vaccinated in May. The gossip says that it is not government-funded, but by people who care about environmental protection. Vaccines donated by celebrities.

The Galapagos Islands are famous because after Darwin traveled around the world and landed here, he was inspired to think of the theory of evolution by natural selection, which eventually prompted him to write "The Origin of Species". The first time I heard about it was two years ago when I decided to go to Colombia or Ecuador to do a strategy. I just remembered that it would take at least a week in this archipelago. At that time, I decided to go to Colombia because I didn’t have enough vacation time. Before I came to Ecuador this time, I read on the Internet that traveling on this island is super expensive and the prices are high. It is nearly 1,000 kilometers away from the capital of the mainland. It is estimated that the air ticket is more expensive than flying to Ecuador from the United States. When I was hesitating whether to come, I happened to read it in the news. The Darwin Arch, which was naturally formed by the geological miracle, suddenly collapsed into the ocean. At that time, I felt that this was an omen: we always think that there is still time for many things, and we will do it later, but we don’t know if there is any future. Due to global climate change and other reasons, many places may not exist when you want to go. The second omen is that one of the protagonists in the American drama Schitt's Creek that I have been watching for a while is going to work on this island. It was a pity not to go to Ecuador after finally coming to Ecuador. If I don't come this time, I probably won't come alone again in the future.

I heard from the locals that since the epidemic last year, the number of tourists here has dropped sharply. In the past, there were about 600 tourists a day. In the first three or four months of the epidemic last year, there were only three or four hundred tourists. Now it is slowly recovering, but there are still few tourists. . The youth hostel I booked was directly upgraded to a room for two, and the conditions are still very good. I went out for a stroll in the street and saw sea lions and large yellow lizards occupying seats at the bus station.

The most common species in the Galapagos Islands is the sea lion, which is everywhere on the coast. All kinds of people lie down and sleep, and they basically don’t wake up all day long. It’s so comfortable. Listening to the tour guide's introduction, the most obvious difference between sea lions and seals is that the small ears on both sides of the sea lion's head are obvious, while the seals have ear holes on both sides of the head that are not obvious or even hard to see. In addition to sea lions, common species include marine iguanas (perched on seaside reefs) and land iguanas (on volcanic rocks or in the middle of roads), which are basically motionless. In addition to these two more common animals, I also saw the Blue-Footed Booby today. I accidentally saw a large group of blue-footed booby when I was strolling on the beach. It was better than the Tintoreras Island that I took to the group in the afternoon. There are a lot of them. Males are smaller and lighter in color than females. I heard that there are red-footed boobies on other islands. The most unique species here should be the equatorial penguin, which is the only penguin in the world that lives north of the equator. It is small in size, only 50 centimeters upright. It is the second smallest penguin in the world, and the smallest penguin is in Australia.

In the afternoon, the group tour also included snorkeling, followed the tour guide, and saw large turtles, small sharks and sea lions. The small sharks here swim very close to the sea lions. It is said that the small sharks only eat squid and do not eat sea lions or people. After that, I saw all kinds of birds and flamingos. I heard from the tour guide that I could see more flamingos in the morning. I will get up early tomorrow to see them.

I went to the same place to watch flamingos in the morning, only one more. I was lucky enough to see one flying in the sky. It felt like I was in Jurassic Park. I planned to go to the Wall of Tears of Muro de las lágrimas by myself. The locals suggested renting a bicycle, but walking is also possible, but the time is longer. Anyway, I have time in the morning, so I decided to walk. It started to rain lightly halfway, so we quickened our pace and walked vigorously. Passing by several roadside signs said "Attention Galapagos tortoises", but maybe because of the rain I didn't see any at first. As I was walking, I caught up with an uncle from Quito, because there was no one else on this road, and he asked me if I wanted to hike together. Since I joined him, I have seen five or six tortoises one by one. This tortoise is endemic to the island and is where the name of the island comes from. An adult giant tortoise is 1.5 meters long, weighs nearly 200 kilograms, and has a lifespan of more than 100 years. If you get close to them, they will make strange noises, and then retract their heads into their shells. I also saw a lot of cactus trees on the road, which can be as high as 12 meters, but it is said that they only grow a few millimeters to a few centimeters every year. Cacti are also a major food source for tortoises.

On the way for more than two hours, I walked and chatted with Uncle Quito, and learned that he is the only agent of Nutella chocolate hazelnut paste in Ecuador, and also does other food and nutrition business. He is a big boss with more than 500 people in the company. and two sons both work in the family company. The more we talked, the more sure he was a rich man. Their family went to the United States a few months ago to get the new crown vaccine. Most people come to the Galapagos Islands for the first time, and he is on vacation for the fifth time, and he came to Isabela Island by private plane from Santa Cruz, the main island. Most of us can only take two hours of bumps boat coming. The uncle went to China on a business trip three years ago, and he likes to eat Peking duck. Later, I also talked about that he and his ex-wife have a daughter in New Jersey, and he will be a grandfather next month, very happy. After chatting a lot, the uncle suddenly said that very few people know about his private life, and generally he rarely talks about it with others. He is a completely different person at work, and he is very serious. He said that he is here to relax. true self. The uncle is in great shape and walks very fast. I have to work hard to keep up. Finally, we came to the Wall of Tears. It is said that it was built by prison inmates in the 1940s and 1950s. Thousands of people died during the construction.

In the afternoon, I participated in a half-day group and took a boat to Túneles. The other four people in the group have a French mother and son. The son had worked and lived in San Francisco for five years. Since the epidemic last year, he moved out of San Francisco to travel around and work remotely at the same time. The mother was also a teacher before, teaching biology at a French international school in the United States. There was an Italian who lived in Jamaica, and an Israeli who had just completed three years of military service. The island of Túneles was formed hundreds of years ago by the flow of lava from volcanic eruptions and looks like a tunnel. The tour guide said that the separate pieces of lava they saw were originally a large plate connected together, but due to global warming, the water level rose, and the water flow eroded the lava to form the scene we see now. Large chunks of collapsed magma can be seen in the clear water. Walking on lava feels like being on another planet. We sat on an arch bridge to take pictures. The tour guide said that the Darwin Arch Bridge in the north collapsed last month, and this might be the next one.

In addition to the equatorial penguins we saw yesterday, we observed blue-footed boobies at close range for a long time today. Now is the season for their courtship and mating. Males will shake their bodies from side to side and dance on their little blue feet to attract females. Males are generally smaller than females, with lighter blue feet and smaller black pupils. I took a photo of my face, and I feel that it looks very funny. After that, go snorkeling and swim with equatorial penguins and sea turtles at a super close distance. The big turtle is one or two meters long, and one of them can be touched by hand, which feels bigger than me. I also saw a large group of sharks, sea lions, small seahorses and various colorful fish living in the dark underwater caves.

As soon as the group that hiked the crater Sierra Negra gathered this morning, they found that the other four people from the snorkeling group yesterday were also here. Besides the five of us, there were five other people. Because the number of tourists is much less than usual recently, we put together our English-speaking tour group and the Spanish-speaking tour group. The tour guide said that before the epidemic, this group existed every day, and at least five or six groups hiked the crater every day. Now there are only two or three groups a week, and today we are the only one. There are pros and cons to traveling during the epidemic. The advantage is that there are very few people everywhere, and the price is cheaper than usual. Most day groups and accommodation do not need to be booked in advance. Last minute bookings are sometimes available The price is super low, and the itinerary does not need to be planned in advance, it can be very casual. The downside is that you have to wear a mask most of the time, sometimes it’s too hot to breathe, and you don’t have many chances to meet your companions. I miss the time when I could easily meet new friends and share recommended itineraries with each other when traveling.

The Sierra Negra volcano is one of five active volcanoes on Isabela Island in the Galapagos Islands and the second largest caldera in the world, formed more than 500,000 years ago. After being introduced by the tour guide, I realized that the largest crater in the world is in the United States, which is actually Yellowstone Park. Three years ago today, this volcano erupted for the last time. The tour guide said that he happened to lead a group at that time. He took the only video of the lava eruption and flow in the crater on the top, and sold it to many local radio stations to report news. On YouTube can also be found. From the beginning of the hike to the edge of the crater, it has been raining lightly. The road is muddy, and the crater is so cloudy and foggy that it is basically impossible to see anything. Afterwards, the weather gradually cleared up, and I was lucky enough to see a rainbow appearing in the crater. The tour guide said that this was the first time he saw a rainbow in this location. From the edge of the crater to the inside, it is all the way down. The scenery in front of you is very different from the geology under your feet. It feels like walking on Mars in another world. The more you walk in and look back, you will find that there are more vegetation on the periphery, and the color of the rocks is also different. The rocks become darker as you go in, because it has erupted recently, and no vegetation has grown. I also saw some small caves, which were formed by the flow of magma, and the temperature was very hot when I put my hand in. The guide also showed us the sulfur stones he collected every time he passed by.

After four or five hours of hiking, I went back to my residence and put on my backpack to catch the boat back to Santa Cruz Island at three o'clock. After more than two hours of bumpy travel, I returned to the main island of Santa Cruz.

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