Fernandina
What a strange world we have entered. Tiny specks of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 600 nautical miles from the nearest mainland and at the confluence of huge oceanic currents originating in vastly different parts of the world. A world full of shocking contradictions: the Galapagos Archipelago.
Straddling the equator at the very heart of the tropics, yet bathed in cool waters creating desert environments and temperate weather conditions—the first sight of these islands never fail to profoundly jolt the first-time visitor, maybe even disappoint with their arid look and seemingly lifeless shores. Yet as soon as one sets foot on land, a myriad of unexpected life forms keep us spellbound. These are supposedly wild animals, yet none show any fear, or even concern, with our passing through—we are just other creatures forming part of their world.
Some of the flora and fauna of these islands is typical of tropical America, others are normally linked to temperate, even sub-polar regions!
Wherever else do fur seals swim in the same area as hammerhead sharks, penguins swim among tropical reef fish and small clumps of reef-building corals? Even more shocking is to see these very same penguins, so typical of the extreme southern latitudes of our planet, wander among the prop roots of red mangroves—such a classical tropical ecosystem!
Fernandina embodies all these contradictions, against an amazing setting of stark lava flows, a towering shield volcano, and some of the strangest inhabitants of these pristine oceanic islands, as are the only flightless cormorants in the world. I always say one has not really imbued the essence of the Galapagos, a place unique on earth, until one has walked or cruised along the shorelines of this particular island—the youngest of the group and in my opinion the most strangely spectacular.
As naturalists who live on the islands week in, week out, we particularly enjoy the surprise element this island has to offer, such as the otherworldly oceanic sunfish glimpsed from Zodiac cruises and today even the chance to observe a solitary sperm whale, that king of the depths, re-oxygenate before plunging back to a world so completely unknown to us.
What a strange world we have entered. Tiny specks of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 600 nautical miles from the nearest mainland and at the confluence of huge oceanic currents originating in vastly different parts of the world. A world full of shocking contradictions: the Galapagos Archipelago.
Straddling the equator at the very heart of the tropics, yet bathed in cool waters creating desert environments and temperate weather conditions—the first sight of these islands never fail to profoundly jolt the first-time visitor, maybe even disappoint with their arid look and seemingly lifeless shores. Yet as soon as one sets foot on land, a myriad of unexpected life forms keep us spellbound. These are supposedly wild animals, yet none show any fear, or even concern, with our passing through—we are just other creatures forming part of their world.
Some of the flora and fauna of these islands is typical of tropical America, others are normally linked to temperate, even sub-polar regions!
Wherever else do fur seals swim in the same area as hammerhead sharks, penguins swim among tropical reef fish and small clumps of reef-building corals? Even more shocking is to see these very same penguins, so typical of the extreme southern latitudes of our planet, wander among the prop roots of red mangroves—such a classical tropical ecosystem!
Fernandina embodies all these contradictions, against an amazing setting of stark lava flows, a towering shield volcano, and some of the strangest inhabitants of these pristine oceanic islands, as are the only flightless cormorants in the world. I always say one has not really imbued the essence of the Galapagos, a place unique on earth, until one has walked or cruised along the shorelines of this particular island—the youngest of the group and in my opinion the most strangely spectacular.
As naturalists who live on the islands week in, week out, we particularly enjoy the surprise element this island has to offer, such as the otherworldly oceanic sunfish glimpsed from Zodiac cruises and today even the chance to observe a solitary sperm whale, that king of the depths, re-oxygenate before plunging back to a world so completely unknown to us.
