Fearless Friends Galapagos Islands the setting for the greatest survivor show on Earth

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Some participants in the “Survivor” TV shows may have seemed like odd characters at times. But they are nothing compared to the strange animals of the Galapagos Islands, a bunch of creatures who are survivors extraordinaire.

Just one look at these desolate volcanic islands, isolated 600 miles off mainland Ecuador, and you’ll shake your head in amazement at how any animal could adapt to this brutal environment. But adapt, these animals did. And in the process, they turned themselves into astonishing creatures, many of which are found nowhere else on the planet.

For starters, I present you with Exhibit A: a marine iguana, the world’s only seagoing lizard.

And this cold-blooded little monster was staring me down as I stood on a trail in the Galapagos. A 10-pound, greenish-black lizard with a cunning smile, it looks like it should have become extinct a long time ago. A foot from me, the tiny Godzilla was sunbathing smack in the middle of the trail. And it had no intention of yielding the path to me. I may tower over this little road hog, but that made no difference to it. It is a Galapagos creature, and Galapagos animals show no fear of humans.

The iguana held its ground. I made the detour. Then, it spit. Later I learned this was nothing personal. It’s just an iguana thing. Turns out, the beasties are sneezing. It’s the way they get rid of excess salt consumed during underwater seaweed feeding, and talented ones can snort out streams of salty mucous some two feet or so. You have been warned.

A few moments before my meeting with Godzilla, one of the members of my tour had cried, “Hey, look, the natives are friendly!” as a sea lion pup waddled over to where he was standing.

Over the course of my four-night cruise I came to realize that this fearlessness, even friendliness, is the special appeal of a Galapagos trip. Wild animals aren’t supposed to act like this. They’re supposed to run from you. But in the equator-straddling Galapagos, you can almost hang out with the animals, who often seem every bit as curious about you as you are about them. (Biologists say this lack of fear is the result of living in a place with no predators.)

Sometimes the creatures seemed downright playful. And in the water, they could be big showoffs.

As we swam off lunar-landscaped Bartolome Island, penguins (no icebergs for these guys!) rocketed by us at 25 mph. While we snorkeled off James Island, fun-loving sea lions darted back and forth, as if trying to get us to play tag.

Friendliness aside, some of these animals can be downright strange.

No need to take my word for it. Charles Darwin also thought the Galapagos wildlife was plenty weird. The 26-year-old English naturalist sailed to these islands in 1835. After observing the strange flora and fauna here for five weeks, he got to thinking. He ended up revolutionizing science with his theory of evolution by natural selection, writing the book on The Origin of Species (1859). And so, you have to figure the Galapagos Islands must be one peculiar place.

To my thinking, with no animal fearing another, these fantasy islands had sounded like an Eden. But as I stood at the rails of the Isabela II on the first morning of the tour, I thought: These parched and rugged islands sure don’t have the look of paradise. It would be hard to dream up islands more mean-looking.

Tower Island treat

Soon, we hopped into the motorized rubber rafts (locally called pangas) that would carry us to Tower Island. Supposedly, we would be seeing birds, but from a distance the island looked completely devoid of life.

Once up close, though, we saw a different story. The place was a hive of wildlife. Masked boobies lounged at cliff edges. Pelicans dove for fish. Bright red Sally Lightfoot crabs and marine iguanas nestled in cliff crevices. A sea lion zoomed in close to the raft for a peek at the human species.

We disembarked the rafts and climbed a series of steep steps up the cliff face. Once at the top, we gazed in wonder at the commotion and chaos of a bustling city. Welcome to Booby Town.

Stretching before us was a scrubby lava field, thick with blue-footed, red-footed as well as masked boobies. Our guide, Maricarmen, led us along a marked path, zigging and zagging around boobies going about their own business: preening, sleeping, nest-building, squabbling.

With 64,000 visitors a year to the islands, Maricarmen impressed on us the rules you must follow when you visit the Galapagos, a biological gem so unique and delicate that Ecuador declared the islands a national park (1959) and the United Nations designated them a World Heritage Site (1978).

“Remember,” said Maricarmen, “Don’t step on the animals. And don’t touch the animals. And stay on the marked path.”

Darwin would have been impressed with Maricarmen Ramirez. Our 30-year-old naturalist guide, who hails from Quito, Ecuador’s capital, knew her material cold and delivered the goods in lively ways.

As our group followed her down the Booby Trail, we came upon two blue-foots having a spat. “You can tell males from females by the sound they make. The females honk. But the males whistle, like males everywhere,” said a grinning Maricarmen. Then the booby soap opera got louder. “Quiet, I’m talking,” Maricarmen instructed them. They paid her no mind.

Meanwhile, we were howling. “Every time I look at one of those blue-footed boobies, I have to laugh,” said my husband. “The befuddled expression on their faces always seems to be saying, ‘I don’t get it.'”

It’s this “duh” look, along with their comical mating dances shuffling those bright blue webbed feet, that got the bird its name. The word “booby” comes from the Spanish word bobo, meaning “stupid fellow,” a name given them by early sailors, who were astounded that boobies did not fly away when men approached to kill them.

“Oh, look,” cried Maricarmen, “there’s a vampire finch. He is very interesting.”

And this survivor is a real back stabber. Also called the sharp-beaked ground finch, this sparrow-sized bird developed a quirky way to quench its thirst in this dry, sun-bullied environment: It alights on larger birds, jabs them with its beak, then sips their blood.

It was at this point that I concluded: No one could make up a place more bizarre than the Galapagos. I mean, here’s a land where not all birds can fly and tortoises are as big as La-Z-Boys. It’s just too unbelievable. It belongs in the pages of Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not!”

As for myself, I was adapting well to life aboard the 40-passenger Isabela II, a luxury yacht operated by Metropolitan Touring, a company that has been running Galapagos cruises since 1969. After time spent on land communing with nature, it was always bliss to return to the mahogany-paneled yacht and wallow in civilization, dipping into the hot tub, bar and lounge, observation deck, delicious cuisine, and impressive book-video library.

Fabulous Fernandina

A day’s sail from the Booby Town on Tower Island lies the island of Fernandina, one of the most pristine ecosystems in the world. No non-native species have ever been introduced here. “This is my favorite island,” I was told by Sylvia Moncayo, who’s worked for 32 years for Metropolitan Touring, Ecuador’s largest tour operator.

It wasn’t long before I understood why. Right from the start, Fernandina was an island crowded with a cast of eccentric characters that confronted us at every turn.

Within moments of landing, we were walking an obstacle course around sea lions lounging on the beach. Not one moved. Even mothers with young pups showed no concern about their offspring, and we were so close we could hear the suckling sound of the pups nursing.

Of course, the photographers in the group were going crazy. One fat sea lion pup even seemed as if it was humoring the humans, turning its sweet face in one pose after another, as our cameras smoked and gobbled up film.

Most of the time, though, our presence didn’t seem to affect the animals at all. They just went about their daily lives. At one point, as we moseyed along on Fernandina’s beach, we couldn’t help but notice a barking male sea lion was trying to get friendly with a female. Here is one instance where we didn’t move in within a few feet for a closer look. Unlike the congenial pups and female sea lions, territorial bulls can be aggressive toward anything coming between them and their breeding rights.

Suddenly, a second bull came charging up from the sea, roaring ferociously and ready to do battle over a pretty face. The huge bulls exchanged thunderous barks, then a moment later the slightly smaller bull turned and scooted off as fast as his flippers would go. Sometimes you feel like you’re witnessing some very personal moments. But the animals didn’t seem to care. Kind of like the “Survivor” TV show at times, I guess.

Fernandina is also the island with the largest population of marine iguanas, and the place where that little Godzilla refused to budge from his spot on the jagged, black, lava terrain. Not far from Godzilla, we saw another quirk of nature, flightless cormorants, birds endemic to the Galapagos. With no predators, cormorants had no need to fly, so over time the unused wings of these 2-foot-tall birds shriveled to stubs.

But of all the animals of the Galapagos, the giant tortoises are the creatures that put these islands on the map. The islands’ very name comes from the Spanish word, galapagos, meaning “saddle” which describes the shape of the tortoises’ shell.

These tortoises were big on the menu with the pirates and whalers who haunted these islands from the 17th through 19th centuries. Tortoises provided the perfect travelers’ food: tasty, plus a long shelf life. (Stockpiled aboard ship, live tortoises could survive for up to a year without food or water, providing a steady supply of fresh meat.)

“It is estimated that these early sailors took about 250,000 tortoises,” said Maricarmen, as she led us through the facilities of the Charles Darwin Research Station, a conservation-science center on the island of Santa Cruz famous for its program of breeding giant tortoises. And the research station is your best bet for seeing a giant tortoise. (There are about 15,000 wild giant tortoises in the Galapagos today, but they are difficult to spot in the wild.)

We were soon introduced to several tortoises who turned out to be real social animals, letting us gape at them up close and pose with them for photos.

One giant tortoise was staring straight into my eyes. He was a big guy, clearly an adult, which can weigh up to 500 pounds. “Their life span is about from 150 to 200 years of age,” said Maricarmen.

I quickly did the math: If this tortoise was an elderly specimen, it could have been around when Darwin passed through here in 1835. Those same eyes that were now locked on me might have once stared at Charles Darwin.

About these tortoises, maybe even this particular tortoise, Darwin had written: “They appeared almost old-fashioned antediluvian animals or rather inhabitants of some other planet.”

And even now, nearly 170 years later, the Galapagos and its animals are still out of this world.

If you go

Where are the Galapagos: Sitting on the equator some 600 miles west of South America, the Galapagos Islands, a province of Ecuador, are made up of 13 major islands, six smaller ones, and 42 islets.

Why a cruise? Because that’s virtually the only way to see the Galapagos. These islands are fragile, and so they are strictly controlled. There are 52 designated visitor sites, and they are accessible only by boats with licensed naturalist guides. At each visitor site, the Galapagos National Park allows no more than 100 people at a time.

Cruises: My four-night cruise was aboard the newly renovated Isabela II. This 40-passenger yacht is operated by Metropolitan Touring. Rates for three-, four- and seven-night cruises range from $1,140 to $2,660 during the low season and from $1,270 to $2,955 in high season. Low-season prices operate from mid-March to mid-June, Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, and Nov. 21 – Dec. 20.

Metropolitan Touring also offers several other cruise options. The90-passenger M/V Santa Cruz features three-, four- and seven-night cruises, running from $764 to $3,625, double occupancy. Another option is the company’s hotel-and-yacht program, which combines day cruises on the 36-passenger motor yacht Delfin II and overnights ashore at the Hotel Delfin (on Santa Cruz Island), ranging from $555 to $1,610 for three- to seven-night packages. Prices include accommodations, all meals, sightseeing excursions, guide and lecture services.

Prices do not include air fare, the Galapagos National Park entrance fee ($100), and tips for ship’s crew and naturalist guides. Also, Ecuador has a departure tax of $25.

For more information, contact Adventure Associates (Metropolitan Touring’s representative in the U.S.), at 13150 Coit Road, Suite 110, Dallas, Texas 75240. Tel: 800-527-2500. Or visit Metropolitan’s Web site atwww.ecuadorable.com which offers a wealth of information, including many useful links. Other helpful sites: the Charles Darwin Foundation (www.darwinfoundation.org); World Wildlife Fund (www.worldwildlife.org); and the Embassy of Ecuador (http://www.ecuador.org).