When Darwin explored the Galapagos archipelago 170 years ago, the words “wonder” and “dream” peppered his journal. Last summer Travel writer Edie Barvin ’84 took her son Austin on USC Trojan Travel’s Galapagos Islands Family Adventure. Here are excerpts from her journal.

I HAD ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE THE Galápagos Islands, ever since I first read about Charles Darwin and his fascinating voyage in grade school. After the oil spill off the coast of the archipelago that made headlines around the globe in January 2001, I was even more compelled. I felt like time was running out, as though I would somehow be changed by what I would see, that it would have a profound impact on me, just as it had on Darwin over 150 years ago. I sensed it would be a journey that was not merely physical. I was not disappointed. The amazing archipelago, approximately 650 miles off the coast of Ecuador, is unlike anything on this earth. Getting there isn't easy; nor is it cheap. But then that is the way with most things that are worthwhile.

“I never dreamed that islands, ... formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted...”
 – Charles Darwin,
The Voyage of the Beagle
QUITO, ECUADOR
Arriving in Quito at night after leaving sweltering Miami in the afternoon, I was surprised by the chill and the thinness of the air. I had forgotten that Quito, the capital of Ecuador and its second largest city, is situated at the base of the Andes mountains at an elevation of 9,350 feet.
But the city that seemed cold and deserted the night before was alive and vibrant the following day as we drove past the Parque El Ejido, where dozens of artists selling paintings, sculptures and local crafts vie for space with families enjoying a Sunday outing in the large public park.
Working our way up a fertile valley towards the mountains, we passed Indians and mestizos with sun-worn, leathery faces, wearing colorful ponchos and Tyrolean-styled hats. Wondering how the indigenous people came to wear such un-indigenous-looking headgear, I asked our guide about it. She said that many Swiss and Austrians settled in Ecuador and that the Indians admired their hats. It didn't dawn on me until we saw the snowcapped peak of Corazón rising up in the distance how similar the Andes are to the Alps.

GUAYAQUIL TO BALTRA
We woke up at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m.
to catch our 30-minute flight from Quito to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. Our bags had been thoroughly inspected and tagged the night before to insure that we would not be bringing anything new in the way of plants or animals to the islands. Visitors to the Galápagos are not allowed to deplane or even get out of their seats in Guayaquil, so we sat on the runway for close to an hour before flying the remaining hour and a half to the island of Baltra.
Once on board our ship, the Santa Cruz, we met the crew and the six naturalists who would be our constant companions, shipboard entertainment and inexhaustible fountains of information on our excursions onto the islands.
The chief naturalist, Klaus, informed us of the regulations on board and on the islands, stressing that no food should ever be brought onto the islands, nothing must be removed from the islands, and that everything brought on must be taken off each island.

A panga from the Santa Cruz scouts the coast off Fernandina in search of penguins and flightless cormorants.
After witnessing the natural beauty of unspoiled, unlittered islands full of treasured animals, all of us, I think, experienced a raised level of consciousness. One day when I noticed that a Band-Aid on my foot was coming loose in the water, I pulled it off and clenched it in my fist until we were safely back on board. More than once I observed others in our group lunging for cocktail napkins that threatened to blow overboard into the sea. I thought, sadly, that this is probably something we wouldn't do at home.

NORTH SEYMOUR
No one and nothing I'd read could have prepared me for my first excursion onto one of the islands protected by the Galápagos National Park Service. They said the animals are unafraid of people. They said North Seymour is known for its vast colonies of blue-footed boobies and Magnificent frigatebirds. But I didn't realize I would be tripping over them. If I dared to take my eyes off of my feet, a little squawk would let me know that I was about to step on a booby’s nest made right in the middle of the path. Not that they have much choice in where they “build” their nests – the entire island seems to be covered in birds in various stages of mating, sitting on eggs, and feeding hatchlings – and a booby’s nest, due to a lack of building materials, usually consists of a simple ring of guano in the middle of a dusty trail.
We watched the male Magnificent frigate birds with their big red throat pouches blown up to capacity courting their females and learned that the two species of frigate birds on the island have developed a sort of “flex breeding” program. Since there are not enough nesting sites to go around, the Magnificent frigate birds breed from June to December, allowing the Great frigate birds to use the nests from January to May.
All of the serious mating going on became funny to us after a while. At one point after watching a particularly proud male blue-footed booby strutting his stuff after copulating, we broke out in spontaneous applause. He didn't even flinch.

Marine iguana feed on algae at Fernandina Island, Photograph by Kevin Shafer

Raft Photo by Zak Zide

 

next page
Related Stories

Amazing Archipelago

Traveling With Trojans

Other Features
Rock of Aging

Next-Generation War Games