Galápagos Islands: Evolution’s Museum — or Conservation’s Dilemma?

00:00:05: Welcome to World Heritage Rookies— the podcast where we explore UNESCO World Heritage Sites one episode at a time! We are Lina

00:00:13: and Ralf and we will travel alongside you to some of the most stunning sites our world has to offer.

00:00:19: Each week, we dive into the history, fun facts, and reasons why World Heritage Sites matter for humanity, sharing our own discoveries and travel tips along the way.

00:00:30: So, let's dive in and learn about some World Heritage together!

00:00:44: Welcome everybody to our first episode of World Heritage Rookies. As you heard in the introduction, this is a podcast about World Heritage Sites. My name is Lina. I am Colombian and I am here with my partner in crime and husband….

00:00:57: Ralf, I'm not Colombian. I'm German, so just a fair warning. You will not hear perfect level native speaker English here, but we still hope that you can enjoy what we're going to talk about.

00:01:09: Sometimes our English is not English, so...

00:01:13: But we're going to make it work somehow because we want to talk about something we're really passionate about, aren't we, Lina?

00:01:19: Yes, so why are we doing this, Ralf?

00:01:22: Well, I think for now, three or four years, it has been that World Heritage Sites have been a really big and important part in our lives. So, we're shaping our travel plans around this. We have themed our wedding at least partially around World Heritage Sites and sometimes I have the feeling we're talking too much about World Heritage Sites with our friends, family and colleagues.

00:01:46: So, we had to look for another way to share our insights without annoying anybody else.

00:01:51: Yeah, find an excuse to talk about it in the first place with each other, but also obviously with anybody who's listening. Thank you very much in advance already for this. And yeah, it has been something that we're really, really excited about and we want to teach each other, I would say, and share what we've learned. So, what can our audience, the listeners, expect what we're going to talk about in each episode?

00:02:15: So, each episode we will share with one another history, stories, fun facts, but especially also personal experiences. Of course, we have visited many of these places. Not all of them.

00:02:28: Yeah, there are too many.

00:02:29: How many do we have right now?

00:02:30: It's something about more than 1,200, I think it's 1,248 right now, but every year new ones are being added, so obviously

00:02:44: It's really hard to catch up.

00:02:45: Yeah, our goal is in the end, we will cover all of them in this podcast, but let's start first with getting this episode done.

00:02:52: Of course, and of course, we will be sharing our sources. We are not professionals in any way, so please don't take our word as the last word, also do some research when you want to visit these places. Of course, we will be sharing some travel tips and information for you to be able to arrive to these places. Many of them are not reachable easily, so we will share this kind of information. So yeah, finally, maybe we will share why these places are World Heritage Sites.

00:03:22: Exactly. So many of you might not know there are certain, there's a list of certain criteria that places have to fulfill in order to be considered World Heritage Sites or, in the end, what the purpose is of the World Heritage Site to preserve for future generations, because it's so relevant for us as a human species. And we will explore in each episode what the World Heritage Site criteria is that is met by this, and hopefully also help you to understand what is the thinking process or the thought process between UNESCO and why specifically it is important. And we will try to support you also with other ways, like that you can have some visualization or some further insights alongside. And I think this is then, what we will most likely publish on our Instagram channel, right?

00:04:10: Yeah, visit us at @worldheritagerookies on our Instagram account. As Ralf said, we will be sharing some visuals so you can interact during the episode with us, but also some tips about what we're going to talk about next. And if you have any questions or something you want to share with us, please, you can do it through there. Yeah, I think that

00:04:31: that concludes our sort of quick introduction into our podcast and we can do a

00:04:35: quick,

00:04:36: quick, yeah.

00:04:37: Now we can go to our first episode. So today is going to be Ralf's turn telling me, so what are we going to talk about today?

00:04:44: Yeah, I thought it's fitting, obviously, that for episode one, we're going to talk about World Heritage Site one, which is actually number one on the World Heritage list, the Galapagos Islands, which are often sort of considered as evolution's living museum. So I'm quite excited to tell you a little bit more about what I learned during my research for it.

00:05:05: Before I start to tell you what I learned about the Galapagos Islands, let's perhaps ask the question, when you think about the Galapagos Islands, what comes to your mind?

00:05:17: Ah, turtles!

00:05:20: Okay, that's a good start, but

00:05:22: No, of course, I know that they are in Ecuador. Of course, I'm Colombian, so we were a nation once. So, that's pretty clear for me. Also, of course, I know them for Darwin's inspiration for his evolution research, but apart from that, and apart from knowing it's really hard to arrive there. There is no more information I know.

00:05:47: That's already a lot. So...

00:05:49: Okay, thank you so much.

00:05:51: No, that's not done, but I can luckily tell you like, I'm going to talk about all of this at least a little bit in that episode. But hopefully also a bit more. Let's start first, because otherwise I know already I'm going to forget it. So I will quickly share with you in advance, what were my sources for the research in this episode, because otherwise I will forget it. Obviously the first resource that I think we will name in every episode is the official website from UNESCO where you can, for each entry in the World Heritage List, find a detailed page that explains all the details about it. I have also used one of my personal favorite sites, the Encyclopedia Britannica, that gives a lot of great insights. I found two very interesting non-profits or charities, one is called the Galapagos Conservancy, and the other is called Ocean Generation. They shared some insights, especially about the history and some fun facts about the nature around the islands. For the whole tips about traveling, I used some travel agencies, so one was called Metropolitan Touring, the other was called Galapagos Travel Centre. I used also some travel blogs, so one was called My Trip to Ecuador, which was quite cool to learn. I have one article from the European Geosciences Union, which was mostly focused about talking about the animals around there, and last but not least also one of our personal favorite sites is worldheritagesite.org, which is a community specifically dedicated to World Heritage Travelers.

00:07:32: So, yes, always check it out, especially if you are a World Heritage enthusiast.

00:07:37: It's really helpful. It gives some cool insights, it has some really interesting reports and stories from people where they've been especially some of the harder to reach places. We use it, I think, for our travel planning, all the time.

00:07:52: Everything, I always also check it just for fun. It is a really nice community, a really respectful community, that really shares useful insights of each of the places.

00:08:02: Yeah, exactly. So, with that out of the way, I'm going to start a little bit talking about the history, and yeah, for something that is a natural phenomenon or like a natural situation, history obviously does not start first with what we've recorded. The Galapagos Archipelago is a volcanic set of islands. And generally speaking, there is the assumption that it's comprised of 19 main islands. And a lot of other smaller islands and islets, which are also constantly newly forming because there is still ongoing volcanic activity, which also has been the foundation for the creation of the Galapagos Islands, which makes it also really interesting from a geoscience perspective because we can still see the formation of land in motion.

00:08:52: Yeah. That is a paradise for research on how stone formation is done.

00:08:59: Yeah, how general islands are being generated. But this has been the background, how they came into existence in the first place. And officially they were discovered in the year 1535 by Fray Tomás de Berlanga, who was at this time the Bishop of Panama. It was, as I have the feeling for so many great discoveries of our history, more of an accident, yes.

00:09:26: Of course, it was.

00:09:27: Apparently he was originally on his trip to Peru, but then ocean currents sort of brought his ship off course. And then he landed in what we know today as the Galapagos Islands. He actually gave them another name, which was firstly they were called Las Encantadas, which is if my Spanish translation is not betraying me calling "The Enchanted". So, yeah, the nice islands. The name Galapagos itself comes from a different thing, and there in my research I found two different approaches. So, the first one is that Galapagos is coming from an old Castilian word meaning riding saddle.

00:10:12: Riding saddle, but does that make sense?

00:10:15: Well, in the context of the islands, it made sense because the tortoises, um, the tortoises, uh, I apologize for my pronunciation, when you look at their shells, they apparently have like a very... we apologize in the background, our cat is playing. So this is...

00:10:33: We have two really,

00:10:35: playful cats sometimes. Yeah, they're interrupting us. So, but apparently it was the shape of the shells of the tortoises that reminded the people who discovered them of, yeah, like, riding saddles.

00:10:51: In other sources, I heard that actually galapagos means just tortoise or turtle itself in old Castilian, but I don't know, like, modern Spanish doesn't have any of this.

00:11:01: No, honestly, it would be closer to a mounting saddle, because galopar, it's actually the...

00:11:13: ah the galloping of the...

00:11:14: The action to mount a horse.

00:11:16: So I think that it would be closer, nevertheless, maybe in old Spanish or old Castilian that had a different meaning, but I will throw in my experience as a native Spanish speaker. It is probably the first one.

00:11:36: The saddle. Yep. So that's also the one that I read more often, but it was not very clear. So, but yeah, after this first official discovery, I'm quite sure there were people there before we just don't have any record of it, but after this first official discovery, the islands were really used for the coming centuries as sort of a base with different intentions. So it was used by travelers who were on this road, it was used by pirates, it was used by whalers and other hunters of the maritime life around them. And what I've found very interesting... So, you remember how I just said, like, initially, this Tomás de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama, he called them Las Encantadas.

00:12:22: Yes.

00:12:23: So you would assume they are pretty, but

00:12:27: Some of the animals there are not pretty.

00:12:29: Well, not just the animals. So it is, what I found very interesting, like that the islands were very often described as a hostile environment because they are very dry and well, they are of volcanic origin and so

00:12:45: Really stony.

00:12:46: Yeah, really stony. And I found actually one quote, which was from the captain of the expedition that Charles Darwin, who I will talk about in a few minutes, was also part of. So he described the first viewing of the Galapagos the following way. "Black, dismal looking heaps of broken lava, a shore fit for pandemonium."

00:13:10: Enchantment indeed.

00:13:12: So he basically said, like, it looks like literal hell, but in the end, it's really not just the islands by themselves that are the stars of this, and it's actually the whole wildlife around there. And this is also where it comes then a very, very prominent situation afterwards in life, because as you mentioned before, one of the biggest celebrities, let's call it like this, who was associated with the Galapagos Islands is indeed Charles Darwin. It was in September of the year 1835 that a 26-year-old Charles Darwin arrived in the Galapagos Islands aboard this ship that I just mentioned, the HMS Beagle where...

00:13:58: I remember one of the things that I didn't know even in school. Of course, everybody learns about Darwin, is that actually he was, as you say, really young. So he didn't do his research until way after and this was just a level of inspiration. Am I right?

00:14:18: Yeah. That's exactly the case. So his famous work "On the Origin of Species", he published it like 23 years later. Even more so like in 1859. So that's what he's famous for. And I think a lot of the misconception is that sort of Darwin arrived in the Galapagos Islands, made a discovery, and like, "Oh, yeah, okay, evolution."

00:14:45: We don't come from…..

00:14:46: Yeah, that's actually not the case. So by today's knowledge, it's actually mostly that the Galapagos Islands, they for sure inspired his theory, but it was not one of the key or only insights about it. So it was a theory that he had been working on over years and years. Darwin was about five weeks in the Galapagos Islands. And he made very clear observations there that would help him in developing his theory of natural selection and evolution because he had been observing the very unique and varied plant and animal life around there. So for example, the differences as I learned depending on which island they are on, some of the tortoises and animals might have different forms of their shells. And the most famous ones are the finches, so the birds that are associated with this. And observing these differences around there, it was something that really inspired him in making his theory. And there are a lot of factors that are playing into this. So first, the islands, they are very isolated and overall, they are...

00:15:57: I guess that that also supported the conservancy until today of these unique species.

00:16:05: Yeah, and so it has fostered these unique developments, but also as you said, it has fostered this conservancy that we have seen there. So this isolation from the rest of the mainland of South America, it has helped to develop a really unique flora and fauna. And this was then, like I mentioned before, what also sort of gave inspiration. Interesting enough: it's not really mentioned a lot in his book, as I heard. So I do not know if you read the book itself "On the Origin of Species"...

00:16:36: Many years ago, I don't think I will be able to actually recall much of it. But yeah, you're right, he mentions maybe it's the base of how the species develop across the specific environments. So it's kind of implied, but yeah, not specifically mentioned, I don't really remember.

00:17:01: Yes, as I learned through my research, apparently the Galapagos are not really a big part of his book. And the reason behind is that he originally misidentified a lot of the birds around there, so

00:17:14: He was just like Bird 1, Bird 2.

00:17:17: Yeah, not necessarily only this, but he wasn't really identifying what we know now as Darwin's Finches as finches, so this actually the honor belongs to an ornithologist named John Gould that he had been in contact with later, but he also did not bring a lot of it as a discovery because apparently it was a mess. So like, he just put everything he could find together and he was not really good at labeling it. I found this very interesting because by now you will think of Darwin as this superhuman in a way.

00:17:51: Pragmatic, organized.

00:17:53: And like, the genius that discovered this evolution theory, which obviously he was a genius, but that shows like, well, even a genius sometimes can make mistakes and have flaws. That I found in a weird way, somehow very reassuring, but this is really the reason that he did not bring the Galapagos Islands up that much because he did not label it that properly. And yeah, so this is obviously also a very, very big part of it and how Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands. And afterwards, really history wise, there has not been so much specifically going on. So obviously, in the following decades and years after that, there have been multiple efforts to settle on the islands during the colonization efforts. It was more or less successful. I think today there are also only three islands inhabited because yeah, it's not the most easy environment to live in. And obviously, since it's an island, the islands were also used to house prisoners.

00:19:03: Always. I think that this is a really normal tendency. I will not say in the Americas only, but really present in the Americas, we Colombians have the same, one jail on one island that nobody can visit, the United States did it as well. I think other countries also in Latin America. We love jails in places where you cannot escape from.

00:19:25: Yeah, I mean, it makes it easier like, okay, how can you make sure nobody can escape, well, there's just a bunch of water around it. That is key. So yeah, that's a little bit about the history of the islands and how they were part of our human history so far. But in the end, the real stars of the islands are, it's not any kind of human activity on it.

00:19:46: It's the lack of it.

00:19:47: Yeah, that's a very good way to say it, it's actually the wildlife.

00:19:51: So the islands themselves, they are often considered as a melting pot of different species. So species, you have on the one hand marine animals that are coming there together. So interestingly enough, as I learned, there is a convergence, a coming together of three major ocean currents, which are the Pacific, the Cocos, and the Nazca tectonic plates. And this leads to an incredibly diverse and unique landscape of underwater life around there. So you have on the one hand, a lot of different sea animals ranging from sea mammals like sea lions, dolphins, a lot of fish, obviously, that come around them. And while it's not 100% sure how all those different animals arrived... for the sea life, well, you can swim around. Yeah. So obviously, they would arrive by sea. For the other wildlife, it's mostly assumed that could either have been by air, coming from the mainland of South America, and some other ways might also be actually with algae or other plants stuck together, and then you would sort of float from the mainland over to the islands. This is how the land life could have been developing there.

00:21:15: Are there a lot of mice and species that are like,

00:21:20: Actually not, it's more about lizards and similar things like this, so especially reptiles. I did not hear that much about mammals, but I'm coming soon to this just because mammals are a bit of a challenge actually today. So there are different ways of animals arriving in the Galapagos Islands. And then its distance from the mainland led to the fact that there was a really unique development specifically targeted towards surviving in this niche in this area. And interestingly enough because there are not really natural predators or huge predatory mammals in the islands. You can still see today that there is not that much fear towards humans from the animals.

00:22:13: So we see a lack of survival skills?

00:22:15: Yes. Which unfortunately became the demise of these famous tortoises because I read a lot that Charles Darwin and other people would then use the tortoises for food because they had no self-preservation instinct or natural fear of humans, and that unfortunately hurt in the end. But that is something that you can still witness apparently today when you're visiting the Galapagos Islands. There are a lot of pictures you can find online of people getting really close to animals and this is

00:22:52: But please that should be preventable like that people please do not do that like

00:22:57: It's actually interesting because today as a visitor you are required to keep a minimum safe distance of two meters or six and a half feet to ensure that it's not harmful towards them. But talking about the animals in the wildlife around there, yeah, you have like I mentioned the most famous ones are the giant tortoises that are found on the Galapagos and I think are sort of a mascot of the islands. And interestingly enough, they belong to the longest living animals or vertebrates on land, they can easily get older than a century and I think I read that the oldest recorded reached 175 years of age. So they can become really, really old. Apart from that you have also other birds, fish and mollusks like snails, octopuses or octopi, I don't know what is the correct plural of them, but yeah. So you have for example the marine iguana, which is the world's only seagoing lizard who feeds on seaweed. This is for example one of the very specific animals that you can find on the Galapagos Islands. There is a penguin as I learned, the Galapagos penguin, which is considered the northernmost living penguin species in the world who has adapted to more of the warmer climate that you have in the area. Then when it comes to birds, so I think you're going to enjoy this, there is a bird species called boobies.

00:24:37: Exactly. Living on the islands. But that comes again from a Spanish word, so they are called boobies, after the Spanish word for clown, which is bobo, as I learned. Or like, it's more like, I think

00:24:51: It's like fool. Because clown is a payaso, actually, so it's more like dumb, or fool, like bobo.

00:25:02: But it can also be used for a clown, right? Because what I learned is that they are apparently named like this because they have really colorful feet. So there's, for example, blue-footed boobies and red-footed boobies. And, sorry, yeah, I love your maturity. So, and they are using their feet, actually, in order to attract partners. So the more brightly

00:25:30: So, of course, all the birds, honestly, we should all be like the birds.

00:25:36: Yeah, so like, the more brightly colored your feet are, the more healthy, attractive... Yeah, the more attractive and healthy you are, you're

00:25:45: Ah, boobies.

00:25:45: Yeah, you're signaling that you are a good mate when you're showing it to your mates.

00:25:50: Tell me they dance.

00:25:53: I do not know if they dance, or if they just show it. But when I was saying, okay, in a weird way, you're talking here about a bird that sort of has a foot fetish like, it's

00:26:04: Oh my.

00:26:05: always, it's always really interesting, like, you

00:26:08: that is a joke here, but, for our audience

00:26:12: I will look for it. Maybe you can check out our account, if I find boobies dancing, I will definitely post it.

00:26:23: I would be also curious to see if they're dancing because so far I know only that they're showing their colors. And, yeah, last but not least, Darwin's Finches or the Galapagos Finches, which probably belong next to the tortoises to the most famous birds around there. So they are small landbirds. And what is the outstanding thing about them is like they have a common ancestor, but by now there are 13 different species of Finches, and they have all very different bills or beaks. And depending on which island they are on and what is the main source of food, so some are focusing on seeds, others are focusing on cactus or parasites. I read one that even is focusing on blood. So

00:27:12: No, it is vampire birds.

00:27:15: Yeah, it's like a vampire bird. I don't think it's human blood. So I assume they might be perhaps a little bit like bats sometimes, like drinking blood from other animals, but these different shaped beaks and bills, they were some of the main factors that inspired Darwin.

00:27:34: Definitely. It's really interesting how much the nature of these beaks, as you say, changed from one island to another one, and I think that it's also important to explain that the islands are not so far away. It's not like the distances between one and another are huge, but

00:27:53: It's still a very unique and own ecosystem, but it shows then really the advantage you can get in specialization for those birds. Yeah, and these were some examples of what's probably most famous in the wildlife for the Galapagos. As a result, the

00:28:11: boobies are my new soul animal.

00:28:13: Of course, they are. As a result, the majority of the islands are now a national park to ensure the conservation of the wildlife, and this is actually bringing us directly then into the next part, which I want to talk about why they are considered a World Heritage Site.

00:28:29: So when it comes to the criteria for being a World Heritage Site. There are generally considered six criteria that are related to culture and four criteria that are related to natural reasons why something is a World Heritage Site, and the Galapagos Islands, they actually meet all four natural criteria for World Heritage status. I do not know by heart if there's any other natural site that actually meets all four criteria.

00:29:15: I think that there are, but they are not many, I will not count more than five, but I will bring that information also.

00:29:24: Yeah, I honestly do not know, so we will probably find out in future episodes if there are any others that meet all four criteria. So what are they? So you have first criteria number seven, which is the natural beauty. As we talked about it before, the islands offer a really impressive natural beauty and have a really unique landscape. Not only talking about the islands, the wildlife and landscapes on the islands. So, it's also about the seaside around it, so it's considered a really huge spectacle the wildlife around there. Yeah, for diving. So it is really cool so you can see the corals, you can see sharks, other marine mammals like we discussed before the sea lions and dolphins, so it seems to be a really unique diving experience that also benefits from what I mentioned before that they are not really shy of humans as predators. Or as a danger that you have a really unique feeling when you're under water in the Galapagos Islands. Then the next criteria which is criteria number eight is that it's an integral part into understanding Earth's history. So since they are still, when we're talking about the age of the Earth, relatively young. You can understand how the whole development of volcanic island groups is going on. And since it is still something you can observe, you can better understand a continuous process of forming these kind of islands. And it is like I mentioned before since it's located at the convergence of three major tectonic plates. It is also of interest because there are just not that many places that you can find this kind of intersection going on. So for people who are really interested in geological developments, it's a very cool way to experience in a way what has been going on in perhaps other areas that are based on volcanic activity and to really understand what's happening there. Then the next criteria number nine is the living nature, and so they're often called a living museum and a showcase of evolution again.

00:31:38: That's self-explanatory.

00:31:39: Yeah, that's right. I don't need to talk about Charles Darwin there anymore, but it is still something you can see today like I mentioned the Finches and the beaks and also the giant tortoises that are on each island and how they inspired the theory of evolution by natural selection. And how yeah, it's still at the moment, a place that is just very, very unique when it comes to it. And this is actually coming to the last criteria, which is criteria number ten, wildlife protection. Because the islands are vital for protecting the many plants and animals that are only found on the Galapagos Islands, actually, so there is an estimate that about 20% of the species on the islands are endemic so only found there. And that means of course, well, you have to preserve it because otherwise you will find them nowhere else in the world.

00:32:28: You will not find boobies anywhere else.

00:32:31: I do not know if actually boobies belong to them. I know for example that this seagoing lizard is one of them.

00:32:37: Oh yeah, the one that eats algae.

00:32:40: Yeah, the marine iguana, which is very specific... And as a result, the Galapagos Islands, they are highly protected, and they are very strictly managed to preserve this fragile ecosystem. So, as I mentioned before, 97% of the land area has been declared a national park, I think, now nearly 70 years ago. And also the surrounding seaside, the marine reserve is also protected. There is a specific department with park rangers, which is responsible for daily protection and management of the area and monitoring the ecological conditions. And coordinating the visits. And this is actually something where you have to be a bit careful because the islands were actually for a short time part of UNESCO's red list. So, what does that mean? When UNESCO is worried that a World Heritage Site might be endangered or

00:33:39: compromised

00:33:40: or compromised of losing its status or what makes it unique, they put it on the endangered sites list. This happened actually for the Galapagos in the years 2007 and 2010, because there were concerns about the population growth on the inhabited islands. The tourism that was coming with the time, so it's sort of a two-edged blade because you need the tourists to get the money to protect the islands. But if there are too many tourists.

00:34:09: An excessive tourism itself is always...

00:34:16: Well, it's always like, yeah, you have to be aware, there can be a challenge with it going on. But also what you mentioned before, actually invasive species. So as I read, there was a challenge that with more tourists or people going there were, for example, cats arriving, rats or similar animals like this. And when I told before that there's basically no survival instinct of all the animals around there for the birds, cats are dangerous, rats, I think they can eat, for example, eggs and similar things. So this was the reason why they became endangered. But that was then sort of got under control from the government again with stricter regulations, stricter controls and also investments and making sure that they are protected. But still today, these invasive species are

00:35:08: problematic.

00:35:09: Are problematic also, you have to deal with illegal fishing, climate change, unfortunately, as another challenge that is now challenging the Galapagos Islands. So we obviously hope that it will still be preserved for a long time for future generations. But it's a very delicate system, clearly.

00:35:28: Of course, of course, I can imagine how impactful any changes on a system of islands that have been pretty much alone for their whole history.

00:35:40: Exactly. And that is sort of also leading us to the last section,

00:35:46: which is the travel tips, because it's directly linked to what we have said here with overtourism. So on the one hand, you have to know it's not easy to reach the islands, but this is also because you want to make sure that not just everybody without any kind of oversight can go there. So as I saw it, there is only basically the way to come there with an in-country flight within Ecuador. So there are flights going from the capital, Quito via Guayaquil. Guayaquil if I pronounce it.

00:36:24: Guayaquil.

00:36:25: Guayaquil. Okay, exactly. Interestingly, it's apparently the same airplanes. So it first starts in Quito. It's traveling and then lands in the Galapagos Islands. But you have no opportunity to arrive via international flights by themselves to control it better. There is apparently not really a bad time to visit because I know it comes as a surprise. It's in Ecuador. So it's really close to the equator. I promised you would learn something in this episode.

00:36:56: If you leave this episode with one knowledge is that Ecuador is over the equatorial line.

00:37:04: I know that's like, but because of this so it's generally considered a great all-year location both in the hot season and dry season.

00:37:12: So in the spring it's always a spring.

00:37:15: There are differences apparently. So in the hot season which is typically lasting from December to May. The water is warmer and clearer which is apparently a really great situation for snorkeling and diving because you have really a lot of fish in the reefs. You have the mating season of the sea lions where then you have like little sea lion puppies going around and sea turtles and you can apparently also observe bird mating and the sea turtle nesting in the land area. I imagine this would be something that you would be interested in

00:37:50: Of course. I would probably choose a warmer time for my impression. What happens in the colder months?

00:37:57: So in the colder months which are lasting from June to around November the waters are generally cooler and more nutrient-rich which is then attracting a higher likelihood of larger marine life such as you can see manta rays. You can see whales and dolphins more likely, penguins also. It also offers a bit of milder land temperatures which is then well just perhaps better suited for long nature walks. Birdwatching is apparently more popular in this season and coming again to our secret star of this episode. It's including also in this period that the blue-footed booby mating rituals can be best observed in this period.

00:38:43: I need to really know what these rituals are about.

00:38:49: Then generally speaking there are two ways how you can experience the islands. The first one is you go with a cruise or the second one is you choose one of the inhabited islands as sort of a base that you can use for day trips to all the other islands around. It obviously has both sides have their pros and cons, so cruises are generally speaking more expensive, but they can also lead you to more remote locations because they're more flexible when it comes to that. You are, generally speaking, more efficient in your traveling and you have better logistics because, well, you're brought and traveled around. When you're having a land-based stay, then it's in relation cheaper, so I'm going to come to prices soon enough, but you are more flexible because you can also make your own more tailored experience. Cruises typically have a set itinerary where they're going to travel, but it can be more complicated to handle the logistics, so you're then really reliant there on a local transport via speedboats or ferries. There are apparently also flights between the islands that you can go on, but you might have to do a bit better planning if you want to really go specifically somewhere or if you want to go to a really remote location, you need to plan in advance.

00:40:10: I will assume also that these inter-island trips are not constant, so maybe once a day or something, so planning and the logistics could be demanding and challenging.

00:40:21: Yeah, exactly. And what I mentioned before, so, yeah, while land-based stays are cheaper, so I think in the few websites that I checked, I have not found any kind of cruises that were cheaper than three or $4,000 per person.

00:40:40: And for how many days do you have a ratio between day and cost?

00:40:45: For sure you have. So the most that I found were around one week or longer, which I also learned a lot of recommendations is like you should stay at least for a week to really experience everything, but I did not do a huge in-depth research. So I'm quite sure there might be more variety, but cruises are typically more expensive, but in general, you have to plan certain monetary expenses with it. So,

00:41:13: Restrictions, I mean, I think that what you want to say, it's not a cheap destination.

00:41:17: Yeah, it's not a cheap destination.

00:41:19: Yeah, but it's not something that you can afford on a daily basis here. I'm doing some mathematical analysis, you will spend around 500 dollars a day for a cruise.

00:41:31: Yeah, I mean, probably you can go even more, so like I've found ones that are thousands of dollars that are really fancy

00:41:37: premium. Of course, please have in mind the environmental impact of cruises and I think that always do your research, looking for options that really take care of not disturbing the marine life and the endemic life of each of these islands.

00:41:55: Yeah, and next to that, what you also have to consider so there is actually an entrance fee that you have to pay per person in order to enter the islands, so which is at the moment of the recording of the episode two hundred dollars per person and this income is directly going to preserving the islands and it's part of making sure that they're taken care of. This is then where it becomes of benefit for you to be a Colombian because, yeah, actually

00:42:25: so many benefits being Colombian and traveling around.

00:42:29: In this case, so because visitors from the Andean community and Mercosur nations who are over the age of 12, they pay only one hundred dollars instead of two hundred dollars. I assumed this might also be applying to Ecuadorians themselves.

00:42:46: A lot of times, especially in Latin America, they charge a lower price for the Colombians, then the range for Mercosur countries or countries that are across the Andes range and a higher price for everybody else.

00:43:06: I mean, yeah, that's very often done indeed. So, I did not find any information about this in case anybody from Ecuador is listening by chance, please feel free to let us know in any kind of comments on our Instagram if that is the case. And this fee can actually only be paid in cash when you're coming to the island.

00:43:26: That's really important because that means I mean Ecuador handles US dollars. So, I think that the rate would be a little bit easier and you sometimes may not need to change, but always have cash.

00:43:38: That is actually directly a good handover to sort of the travel tips that I researched. So the first one, like you said, cash is king in Ecuador. So, a lot of the local establishments on the Galapagos, including tour operators, they might only accept or at least prefer cash payments, it can often be the case that if you're paying by card, you have to accept a huge surcharge on top of it. So the best advice I always find is like try to bring a lot of cash already in advance with you to the islands because also ATMs around there they might not be working all the time or they might be limited in what they're handing out regarding the payments that they have in place. So bring enough US dollars in cash with you. Then I also learned that a lot of tourists that went there said like the benefit that you have from staying in the islands themselves is that you can have cheaper last-minute discounts if you're booking actually tours locally. So at the Galapagos Islands compared to in advance

00:44:44: to have a completely full plan

00:44:46: Yeah, that is what we mentioned before, with a cruise you might have a better set itinerary, you can better understand where you want to go. But I read that really you can save up to 10 to 15% in some cases by booking like only short and last-minute day trips. You can try to get some deals because the online prices can often be significantly higher. But that has the downside that you might have some popular tours that are then sold out very quickly. So it's always, there's not a perfect solution. You just always have to say okay, what's more important to you?

00:45:19: Maybe also keep flexibility. I mean in a place that is not really visited by many tourists which means there are certain limitations of what you can kind of do. I guess

00:45:31: Exactly and last but not least what we mentioned before is that please consider it is a natural reserve so please respect all the rules that are in place. They are really, really important to make sure that the wildlife is preserved. So I mentioned before you have to keep your distance from the wildlife around there to two meters or six and a half feet. You should not give food to any of the animals, you should not touch them, you should not disturb them during their activity what they are doing. You're not supposed to take any kind of souvenirs like stones, seashells, volcanic rocks. You're supposed to stick on the designated pathways when you're walking around, you should avoid flash photography when you're photographing animals and obviously when it comes to waste you have to be really careful about it. So I know that for example certain plastic materials are not allowed to be brought to the islands. I think like typically plastic bottles. You

00:46:30: need to have a glass bottle with you or your personal one.

00:46:35: Yeah, so you are for sure supposed not to bring anything that is easily tossed away. And there is actually what I also learned. There's a form that you have to sign before going there which is called the Galapagos Biosafety Affidavit which you have to sign basically telling yep, I'm not going to ruin this ecosystem

00:46:57: unique environment, please remember I think that many tourists forget that this is an endemic place that you cannot grab anything because there is probably not the same type of it that you will find anywhere else. So yeah, I remember once watching the news in Colombia about some tourist that did something that was not correct in the Galapagos Islands. Of course, we reached this news because we are really close and the conversation was like why not, but understand this is a unique place and bringing some of them not only affects the special nature of the Galapagos Islands. You could maybe also put in risk other species because you don't know what kind of micro-organisms are in one shell, for instance. Something that looks maybe so simple and so harmless could be actually harmful for the environment there and the environment back home.

00:47:55: But when you're following these sort of guidelines you can have apparently an amazing time so you can spend a lot of time snorkeling, diving, bird watching. Walking around having tours to see a lot of boobies, which is always a great thing to do. I'm quite sure you can surf, you have enjoyable beaches around there. And yeah, you just have a great time in a place that I really hope will stay with us for many, many, many decades to come.

00:48:34: Yes, that sort of marks the end of our first episode. I hope I could teach you or tell you a little bit more about it as well and that you are now, I mean, I'm quite sure you already had the Galapagos Islands quite high on your priority list to visit because

00:48:54: It is in the Top10 for sure. And the only reason we have not been able to go is because of what you mentioned before, it's pricey so you have to plan. So please visit it if you can, I'm pretty sure it's a once in a lifetime experience, but have in mind that it will be an expensive trip.

00:49:15: I think actually on the community website that I mentioned before it belongs to the highest rated World Heritage Sites to go, so the

00:49:22: not only the first, the highest, so please have

00:49:25: not the highest I think but some of the highest rated, yeah, so it seems to be a really great experience. It is definitely in the top list. It's not just like you mentioned the first one, it's also one that leaves a lot of great impressions and yeah, thank you everyone for listening to me especially in this episode talking about it and sharing what I learned about the Galapagos Islands. Next week it's going to be your turn, do you want to give a little bit of a hint what we're going to listen to next week?

00:49:58: I will just say we will not go far away and we will learn a little bit more of South American history, so quite excited for that episode and yeah looking forward to it.

00:50:10: Me too and until then thank you everyone.

00:50:12: Thank you everybody, goodbye!