There are 13 major and six smaller islands in the Galapagos, as well as numerous tiny ones. Isla San Christobal is one of the five inhabited islands, the others being Isla Santa Cruz, Isla Isabela, Isla Baltra and Isla Santa Maria. San Christobal is the only island with fresh water; it is the fifth largest island in the Galapagos but has the second largest population.
As part of our Autografa (visiting permit) we are allowed to visit Isla San Christobal, Isla Isabela and Isla Santa Cruz only.
We are anchored off the main town on San Christobal, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. It is a charming town – clean, full of wildlife and displays about the amazing life found on the islands. People are very friendly, offering valuable advice, and there are little shops offering dive and snorkelling trips everywhere, as well as general tour operators who arrange trips to view the terrestrial attractions. Friendly taxi drivers take us all over the island. The first day we explore La Loberia, a rocky shore site with a small beach where we see the famous marine iguanas and snorkel with turtles and baby sealions. The sealions are amazing underwater – clumsy on shore but once in the water they zoom all around us. The babies are friendly and nip at our feet, and we have to keep a close eye on the kids to ensure that they don’t accidentally touch them – once a pup smell of humans, it is often rejected by its mother, and you are not allowed to touch any animals on the islands. There are giant turtles everywhere, sitting placidly on the bottom, some being cleaned by fish and others just chilling.
The next day we go to La Galapaguera and see the giant land tortoises and the island’s breeding center for them. It is estimated that there used to be about 100,000 tortoises on San Christobal but a survey in 2005 counted only 2800 living on the island by then. They are majestic, huge and slow, wrinkled and beady-eyed, with big clumpy feet at the base of their quite skinny legs. The shells are enormous and must be very heavy. We see the babies that are bred at the site: tiny, shiny black little things. It is hard to imagine that they grow into such giants – they are kept in a small enclosure from they hatch till they are 5 years old, after which they are released into the wider reserve. The wardens collect eggs from nests made by the females, bring them to the breeding centre and incubate them, achieving 60% survival, which is much higher than in the wild where the eggs and young easily fall prey to birds, snakes and rats.
On the Wednesday, we take a snorkel trip out to Leon Dormido, a huge rock sticking out of the ocean about an hour’s boat ride away. The site is famous for sharks, and we see several Galapagos sharks as well as black tipped reef sharks, rays, turtles and wonderful sponges, anemones and corals lining the sheer cliff face dropping vertically below us. On top of the rock are frigate birds blowing out their red sacs and pelicans, as well as sleepy sealions and marine iguanas basking in the sun.
On the trip we also visit Cerro Brujo, a beautiful white sand beach amidst lava rocks, where marine iguanas, sealions and numerous seabirds frolic. Here we see a Lava Gull, a species endemic to the Galapagos, of which there are only 400 breeding pairs left. The children play with Laura, a girl from Chile who is visiting on a holiday with her mother.
Everywhere we go there are animals, rare, wonderful, loud and colourful in-your-face animals, going about their lives. It is amazing to be in a place where the creatures that were here originally are afforded such a high status, and where everybody genuinely try to do their best to look after them and their habitats. There are several conservation success stories – the Sally Lightfoot crabs used to be threatened by are now rebounding nicely, thanks to a huge effort. The Lava Gull is still considered At Risk, but numbers are coming back. Lonesome George died, and with him his species disappeared off the earth forever, but the other species of giant tortoises now have healthy populations.
Long may it last.
SV Bob The Cat 