STRANGE AND EXOTIC
A trip to the Galapagos is a unique and unforgettable experience
WHILE only 900km from mainland Ecuador, the Galápagos feel like a different world altogether. These 19 volcanic islands are home to a wealth of strange and exotic species found nowhere else on the planet, from pink, orange and black iguanas and giant tortoises (the largest in the world, at up to 250kg) to tiny penguins, cormorants with wings that no longer work and trees evolved from daisies.
The strangest thing of all, however, is the fact that none of the animals is afraid of humans. There have always been very few natural predators here, so Galápagos’ creatures have evolved to be fearless.
This means that when you travel the Galápagos (picking your way carefully on footpaths, so as not to tread on an iguana or sea lion that may be happily sunbathing), you feel like you could be in a nature documentary. I almost expected Sir David Attenborough’s voice to narrate what I was seeing during my week on the islands staying at the new eco-luxury hotel Pikaia Lodge and then on board the M/V Santa Cruz, cruising around the western side of the archipelago.
Every day on a Galápagos cruise is different. Each morning, I woke up to a new view out of the porthole window, and stepped on the shores of new islands with unique geological histories – collapsed craters and solidified fields of twisted black lava telling the physical story of their formation – and their own species, adapted to live there and nowhere else.
For me, the real highlights were to be found under the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Thanks to upwelling, the marine life in the Galápagos is just as rich as it is on land, and the animals are just as fearless. I had the best snorkelling experiences of my life, swimming with graceful white-tip reef sharks, placid turtles, huge sun fish and gliding manta rays. Sometimes there was so much marine life that it was hard to know what to look at.
Penguins and cormorants dove into the ocean centimetres away from me, and sea lions with big curious eyes invited me to join them in a balletic synchronised show of leaping in and out of the water.
No wonder these extraordinary islands have captivated human imagination for centuries, and inspired Charles Darwin to come up with the theory of evolution that changed the world forever. While the Galápagos is the country’s biggest natural drawcard, back on the mainland, Ecuador has a diverse spread of amazing natural treasures that could keep you travelling for months – from the steamy jungle of the Amazon and snowcapped volcanoes to beautiful beaches and cloud forests. It was to one of these cloud forests that I went, a three-hour drive on winding roads from the capital, Quito.
Mashpi Rainforest Biodiversity Reserve conserves 1 215 hectares of a cloud forest, which is part of the Chocó, a severely threatened rainforest that stretches down from Panama, of which only 10 percent remains in Ecuador. Masphi’s pocket of forest was saved from inevitable deforestation by the former environmentalist mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, and there’s only one lodge on the reserve. Like a modern treehouse with storieshigh glass-and-steel walls that are centimetres from vine-wrapped trees, its hilltop perch offers expansive views of a sea of mist-wreathed green in every direction.
While the Galápagos was about close encounters with large animals, exploring Mashpi was all about tiny organisms. On hikes through the verdant forest, guide Sebastian Vizcarra pointed out jewel-like drops of dew captured by ever thirsty moss, butterflies hatching out of chrysalises, frogs the size of a pinkie fingernail, orchids smaller than an orange pip and iridescent hummingbirds (some of the 500 species of birds found in the forest) no bigger than my thumb, explaining how every minute living being fits into this wonderfully complex damp ecosystem.
Spending a few days in Mashpi was like getting years of biology lessons, albeit a lot more interesting than those in high school – condensed, while you can’t help but to delve into profundity of evolution in the Galápagos Islands. Coming to Ecuador was more than a holiday; it felt like getting an education in nature.