Going Places

kristen hilderman (iguana), shelly perry/stocksy (galapagos) masterfile/minden pictures (sea lion and giant tortoises), istock F A L L 2 0 1 5 | G O I N G P L A C E S 37 ere are places on earth where events and a profound idea intersect – places where the passage of a single person has altered the course of history. is is one. Off to the starboard now lies Santiago Island's windswept Buccaneer Cove, where, in 1835, a young theology student named Charles Darwin – just 26 and a wavering believer in Biblical creationism – carried ashore his copy of Milton's Paradise Lost, unaware that it would be here that he'd glimpse for the first time the true nature of the world and lose his faith. e Galapagos figure centrally in the understanding of biological history due to three linked factors: the relatively recent volcanic origins of these 22 remote islands located 966 kilometres off the coast of Ecuador; the isolation of one island from another; and the evolution of the plants and animals here as the archipelago formed over the past three million years. It is now known that life initially arrived on the islands by wing or by drifting south for months on ocean debris from Central America and that no predatory land animals or reptiles survived the crossing. But in Darwin's England, it was believed that God had designed every species in one momentous act of creativity, and that nothing had been added since. It wasn't until Darwin returned to England and studied his Galapagos specimens that the full oddity of the collected creatures struck him, and the process of evolution through natural selection was sighted. Darwin's eureka moment came when he realized that, in many cases, each island's amphibians and birds were unique species. e one-metre-high land tortoises differ, depending on local vegetation and terrain, from island to island. So do the mockingbirds, the sea iguanas, the boobies and, most impressively, the finches. Why, Darwin asked himself, did God do this? Why create 13 species of finches, and then assign each to its own island? Why . . . unless the creatures had naturally adapted to the varying conditions on each island over the millennia. And, if that were true, where did God fit in? These reflections accompanied me as I followed Darwin's route through the Galapagos, though under conditions more comfortable than his cramped quarters on the HMS Beagle. I had a cozy cabin on the Isabela II, operated by Quito-based Metropolitan Touring; the 48-metre ship carries 33 passengers and a crew of 28. Each day during the weeklong cruise, three pangas (Zodiacs) descended from the ship's gantry, then were loaded with passengers destined for one of the 10 islands on the itinerary. The vessels would run up on a beach, I would jump out, and nature was ever ywhere. The wild animals were fearless. This has, of course, been noted since well before even Darwin's landing. But it still came as a shock to me. So I asked the naturalist with the group the obvious question: BOARD THE DARWIN EXPRESS The Galapagos are one of the world's premier nature destinations and, for that reason, tourism is strictly regulated. All visitors – limited to 150,000 a year – must pay a U.S.$100 national park entrance fee, and all must be part of an organized cruise, guided on land and while diving by certified naturalists. These excursions are confined to set locations, set trails and a set duration. ecuador.travel Galapagos Islands, Ecuador Blue-footed boobies. Giant tortoises live 100 years on average. Some 22 islands dot the volcanic Galapagos archipelago. A not-so-camera-shy sea lion.

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