After the trials of ensuring that I had a seat, I was very pleased to sit down and read The Galapagos chapter in the Voyage of the Beagle. What a rollercoaster of a chapter. If anything, it shows that Darwin hadn’t settled on the importance of the island radiation of plant and animals. He glossed over the finches, ‘not having enough room’ in the book to go into to much detail. And then, at the end of the chapter, he makes a statement that is profound, and ‘ahead of its time’.
Darwin noted that the birds and many other animals had no fear of humans, and even in the 200 years since the inhabitants were first discovered, no significant advances in self preservation had developed.
Darwin closes the chapter with a statement that it would be ‘awful if an invasive species got into the system, because the ‘aboriginal’ species would not recognise the threats. This is exactly why we have to go through the biosecurity measures we do to land on the islands….
We landed on the island of Baltra at around 10.15. The island was quite arid, and covered in very scrubby vegetation, including cacti.
We entered Baltra airport, and even though everything had been checked in Guayaquil, sniffer dogs were employed to run all over the luggage, to ensure that no foods, seeds, pests, anything that might harm the ecosystem had been taken into the Islands.
All was well. We took a bus from Baltra airport to the canal between Baltra and our first destination, the Charles Darwin Research Station, and Santa Cruz Island.
Herons were seen in the mangroves, as our funny little ‘river taxi’ chugged and rocked across narrow stretch of water, all of our bags precariously balanced in top of the boat……