Isabela & Ferandina Islands
Dear Community School of West Seattle, Mrs. Kingsbury’s Graham Hill class, and especially mi nieta, Isabel,
This day was very exciting. First we gathered with the captain on the bridge of the National Geographic Islander because we were about to cross the equator. We stood, cameras ready, watching very carefully for the yellow equatorial line. We watched and watched and watched. Do you think we saw that yellow line? Just in case, we also watched the GPS as it moved to 00°.00min.00sec, we had crossed the equator! We were renamed shellbacks – folks who have crossed the equator on a ship. Not only that, we got a certificate saying so!
Next we boarded the Zodiacs and cruised along the volcanic shore of Isabela Island, the longest island in the archipelago. We watched flightless cormorants, birds whose wings are short like flippers with feather fingers; small white breasted penguins sunning; frigates – the birds who puff up their chests into a huge red balloon, (the males puff up, hoping to attract a mate). When frigates fly their tails split making a great dark silhouette in the sky.
Blue-footed boobies sat on the lava rocks. With careful watching, we spotted one in the air, blue feet and all, when suddenly it turned into an arrow and dove at 65 mph straight into the water. When it hit the water, the fish scattered, so the boobie swam under the fish and caught it on the way up! Dinner on the run, or is it the swim?
A short while later we human critters, with yellow flippers, wetsuits (even though we’re at the equator the water is in the chilly mid-sixties, so the wetsuits help us stay warm), and snorkels and joined the marine critters in their home. The first thing I saw in the water was NOTHING. “Boring,” I thought, why did put us in the water here? Then I saw lots of little bitty things in different shapes floating in the water. Was the water dirty? Or was it plankton? I was right. Plankton we learned later is a form of both animal and plant. When magnified, their small shapes turn into interesting looking creatures and plants. They are great food for the fish and animals, including myself when I swallowed water. All of a sudden a marine turtle floated by. I followed it, sort of like we were walking down the street together, only instead of a street in Seattle where tourists come to visit, I was the yellow web-footed tourist visiting the “tortuga marina”, following it around. I looked down, on the bottom a huge sea turtle had stretched its head out and was resting it on a rock as if it was a pillow! Next, penguins looking as if they were flying in the water, zooped by chasing a school of fish. I found myself swimming with and through a large school of silver fish. I call them that because as their bodies catch the light, they turn into flashes of silver.
In the afternoon we walked into the sunset on Fernandina, a small nearby island. As we watched two baby sea lions playing in a tide pool, the naturalist said, “The more play, the better chance they have for success in later life. Do you suppose that is true for human children too?
Because the clumped together iguanas, sea lion mommies feeding their pups, orange crabs and other critters don’t run away as we pass by, but go on living their lives, it’s hard to feel separate from them. It’s much easier here on the Islands to realize we human critters are just that, critters who share the planet with so many other amazing critters, and that indeed we are visiting their home here in the Galápagos Islands, going through their “living rooms” rather noisily as we talk, crunch on the sand and lava, and unabashedly snap their pictures to bring home to share with all of you when we return.
My closing wish for all of you: May your lives be adventuresome, grounded in curiosity, and remembering that we are, all of us on this planet earth, sharing this amazing experience of life together.
