Darwin
The Galapagos is an unbelievable opportunity to see wildlife up close. But what is just as beautiful as the animals is the different islands that they habitate on.
The first island we visited (Baltra)reminded me of Arizona. Cactus, rock, and scrub began our trip to this desert environment. As we traveled into the highlands, the landscape changed to green trees and grass, with the threat of rain overhead. Back out of the highlands into a beach and port town. All in a span of a 40 minute taxi ride.
My favorite island was Bartolome. There is very little plant life on Bartolome, aside from a bit of scrub. Bartolome had lava lizards, but no other real animal populations to speak of. The island itself is volcanic, hilly, and unbelievably scenic. There is another island just north of Bartolome, and they were almost joined together at one point in time by lava. Standing at the top of Bartolome, looking out over the island, I thought that there might not be a more beautiful place on earth.
With the landscape comes different animals. Certain lizards only live on certain islands because of the cactus there that they can eat. Even the height of the same species of cactus will determine the different animal species there. And the finches (remember Darwin’s finches from biology class?) are differentiated based on the type of vegetation available on each island. The finches can actually even differentiate more in less than a year if need be based on changes in their habitat. How’s that for evolution?
Each day we visited two islands, and each day we were greeted by two different landscapes and animal habitats. Each day to me felt as if we were someplace so far from where we had been, when in reality we may only be on the island next door. I don’t feel the pictures do the islands justice, or the proximity of the animals we saw. On land, we were not permitted to get closer than six feet, unless the animal was on the path. And we were not permitted to leave the path. So with all that being said, if you look at the pictures, you see how close the animals are. They lie in the path, next to the path, build their nests on the path…..sometimes you had to step over an animal to continue on the path. Sea lions especially. Somehow the path was a better place to be than the rocks near the water. Realizing that we were visiting a very small area of the islands (only 2% of the Galapagos is accessable) it was amazing to me that we still saw so much.
If you get a chance, go visit this beautiful, beautiful place, and stand in awe like we did of how wonderful the natural beauty of the Galapagos is.
