Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island
Whereas 97% of the surface area of the Galapagos Archipelago is a national park protected by stringent laws of visitation, 3% is inhabited. This small percentage is spread between four islands, San Cristobal (capital of the province), Santa Cruz, Floreana (a village of less than 100 inhabitants) and Isabela (a small but picturesque town of mostly fishermen).
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, after a spectacular evening spent stargazing, Polaris drew into Academy Bay, the shores of which were dotted with the bright lights of Puerto Ayora. This bustling port town was founded in 1926 by a group of Norwegians, who had been tricked into starting a new life in a paradise, only to find themselves at the mercy of a harsh, dry, waterless environment. In the last twenty years or so the town has blossomed, and the illusion of tourism has unfortunately drawn hordes of people to this remote place, now a place of promise rather than despair.
The island is now home to over 10 000 people, mostly found in the port, though a couple of agricultural villages are located in the lush green highlands. This huge increase in population, which now has mercifully been halted with the creation of the new special law for the Galapagos in 1998, has brought many new challenges to the scientists at the Charles Darwin Research Station. This institution, set in place in 1964 to advise the Ecuadorian government on the best ways to go about protecting this unique ecosystem, undertakes mainly conservation biology but also provides the means for visiting scientists from universities around the world to come and undertake fascinating research in the islands. This week we had the opportunity to meet a few of these scientists, as two young Canadian students from the entomology department traveled with us, studying the potential role of tour vessels in the dispersal of insects around the islands. We also picked up a modern-day Robinson Crusoe on Española Island: a young man who had just spent 7 months on this completely uninhabited island studying Nazca boobies and waved albatross, as part of an ongoing 15-year program run by Dr. David Anderson.
The population of the town is thus a weird and wonderful mixture of scientists and conservationists on one side, drawn by the unparalleled natural history of this remote archipelago and its great potential as a laboratory of evolution; and people originally from the countryside and small towns of mainland Ecuador, with many varied religious beliefs. In fact a total of five religions may be counted in town, each with their respective places of worship: catholic, evangelist, seventh day adventist, mormon and Jehovah’s witnesses!
Nowhere in Puerto Ayora is this contrast of beliefs more openly displayed than in the main square we gathered in to take buses to the highlands for lunch. Here a monument to a very god-like Darwin has been erected over the sparkling turquoise waters of the bay, right in front of the main Catholic Church!
Whereas 97% of the surface area of the Galapagos Archipelago is a national park protected by stringent laws of visitation, 3% is inhabited. This small percentage is spread between four islands, San Cristobal (capital of the province), Santa Cruz, Floreana (a village of less than 100 inhabitants) and Isabela (a small but picturesque town of mostly fishermen).
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, after a spectacular evening spent stargazing, Polaris drew into Academy Bay, the shores of which were dotted with the bright lights of Puerto Ayora. This bustling port town was founded in 1926 by a group of Norwegians, who had been tricked into starting a new life in a paradise, only to find themselves at the mercy of a harsh, dry, waterless environment. In the last twenty years or so the town has blossomed, and the illusion of tourism has unfortunately drawn hordes of people to this remote place, now a place of promise rather than despair.
The island is now home to over 10 000 people, mostly found in the port, though a couple of agricultural villages are located in the lush green highlands. This huge increase in population, which now has mercifully been halted with the creation of the new special law for the Galapagos in 1998, has brought many new challenges to the scientists at the Charles Darwin Research Station. This institution, set in place in 1964 to advise the Ecuadorian government on the best ways to go about protecting this unique ecosystem, undertakes mainly conservation biology but also provides the means for visiting scientists from universities around the world to come and undertake fascinating research in the islands. This week we had the opportunity to meet a few of these scientists, as two young Canadian students from the entomology department traveled with us, studying the potential role of tour vessels in the dispersal of insects around the islands. We also picked up a modern-day Robinson Crusoe on Española Island: a young man who had just spent 7 months on this completely uninhabited island studying Nazca boobies and waved albatross, as part of an ongoing 15-year program run by Dr. David Anderson.
The population of the town is thus a weird and wonderful mixture of scientists and conservationists on one side, drawn by the unparalleled natural history of this remote archipelago and its great potential as a laboratory of evolution; and people originally from the countryside and small towns of mainland Ecuador, with many varied religious beliefs. In fact a total of five religions may be counted in town, each with their respective places of worship: catholic, evangelist, seventh day adventist, mormon and Jehovah’s witnesses!
Nowhere in Puerto Ayora is this contrast of beliefs more openly displayed than in the main square we gathered in to take buses to the highlands for lunch. Here a monument to a very god-like Darwin has been erected over the sparkling turquoise waters of the bay, right in front of the main Catholic Church!
