The first stops in the morning were various natural formations created by magma from ancient volcanic explosions. There are two very large craters, “Los Gemelos” (“The Twins”), which are collapsed lava chambers that have since been overrun by jungle growth and animals. We walked through one of the underground lava tunnels, which was carved out many years ago by sideways-traveling magma.
The next stop was a private reserve that serves as home to many free-roaming giant tortoises. Like the iguanas and the seals back at the lodge, the tortoises made fantastic photographic subjects, mainly due to their lack of velocity. The rule in the islands is that all tourists are to maintain a distance of at least two meters from all animals and the tortoises appear to be used to that behavior. They didn’t seem to mind all the humans wandering around and went about their daily business of roaming and grazing.
After lunch, we took a two-hour boat ride to Floreana, one of the smaller islands and possibly the least populated place I’ve ever been; a total of 120 people live on the island. The environmentalist in me was fascinated to learn that 80% of the island’s electricity needs (including tourists) is handled by a pretty small solar panel array. After dropping off our bags and quickly changing, we hiked to a small bay for swimming and snorkeling.
It was here that I had my epitomic Galapagos experience. Only three of us went snorkeling, and after the other two swam off in a different direction, I found myself alone in the ocean, about a football field’s length from the shore. While floating and taking everything in, I heard a loud “breathing out” noise behind me. I turned around to see the head of a sea turtle that had just surfaced and was about to dive again. After playing cat and mouse for a few minutes, with the turtle repeatedly diving and surfacing, I was able to get close enough that it would swim underneath me when it dove underwater. Needless to say, swimming with a sea turtle in the wild is a pretty cool experience.
As dusk approached, we hiked back to the lodges to clean up and enjoy some wine on the patio at sunset. It was around this time that one of the lodge employees noticed some baby birds (most likely Darwin’s finches) in a nest in the crook of a cactus.
After a briefing of the next day’s activities, we went into “town” (I use the term very generously) to have dinner at Lelia’s, a restaurant that is owned by descendants of the first Ecuadorian family to settle on Floreana. In addition to the usual staples of rice, vegetables, and fish, we enjoyed fried yucca and tree tomato juice. After dinner, we went back to the lodges and spent some time stargazing with the help of an astronomy app on Juan’s tablet. Interesting observations included an upside-down Orion, seeing Jupiter with the naked eye, and the Southern Cross, which is not visible in most of the northern hemisphere.
