Perhaps the most meaningful assessment of any photo tour should come from the participants, so on our last night in the islands I did something I have never done before and conducted an informal dinnertime survey, asking my fellow travellers to describe their Galapagos experience in a single word or two. Here is a sample of their responses: “magical”, “astounding”, “fabulous”, “life-changing”, “transformative”, “inspirational”. One participant wanted me to know how moved she had been by the tour, so she gave me a beautiful card in which she wrote. “This tour has been an incredible experience. I have learned so much and experienced even more.”
In the months before the tour began, I had worried that the 2024 Ultimate Galapagos tour might not be as good as the previous 15 trips I had led to this enchanted tropical archipelago. My concerns were legitimate. In 2023, a moderate El Niño flushed the islands with a pulse of unusually warm water from the western Pacific, an occurrence which can typically lead to widespread breeding failures among many of the resident seabirds, sea lions, and fur seals. At the same time, a worldwide epidemic of avian influenza had killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds along the western coast of South America and I was concerned it might have also impacted wildlife in the Galapagos. In the end, my fears were all for naught. Although the El Niño and the epidemic had a small impact on some of the islands’ precious endemic species, collectively they weathered the worst of the storm, and all were bouncing back with remarkable tenacity. On all 15 islands we visited on the trip I was astounded by the resiliency of the natural world.
Still today, in a world where natural areas are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, roughly 95% of the total land area of the Galapagos is protected within the boundaries of the islands’ national park. Of the roughly 4,000 plant and animal species native to the islands, nearly half of which are found nowhere else on the planet, less than 1% have gone extinct. This is vastly better than other famous island destinations such as the Caribbean, Hawaii, Indonesia and New Zealand where extinctions have been common, making the Galapagos the most pristine archipelago to be found anywhere in the tropics of the world.
For our voyage around the islands, we once again travelled aboard the Tip Top II, a luxury catamaran, professionally operated by a friendly crew of eight, and coordinated by veteran Ecuadorian naturalist, Peter Friere, who has over 30 years of guiding experience. Peter’s special interest in photography ensured we got the most out of each landing, and the wealth of images recorded by the participants was ample testament to his efforts. Each day, we had a morning and afternoon landing, and we were always ashore in time to capture the warm light at sunrise, and again in place in the late afternoon for the golden rays of sunset. Our ambitious itinerary included all the major photo stops a photographer to the islands could dream to experience. Some of the remarkable natural history moments we were able to witness and capture with our cameras included:
- Five inquisitive Galapagos penguins staring down at us from the lava shoreline as we snorkelled the fish-filled waters surrounding Bartolome Island.
- A flightless cormorant diving for seaweed, then carrying great wads of golden algae to its partner to build their shoreline nest.
- Watching a comical adult lava heron tenaciously chase sally lightfoot crabs and eventually catching and eating three.
- Great and magnificent male frigatebirds with inflated crimson throat sacs trying to lure a partner to their side with their quivering wings and warbling voice.
- A juvenile sea lion catches a large Mexican hogfish and watching it tirelessly labour to subdue its oversized catch.
- Attentive Nazca booby parents, some incubating a pair of white eggs, while others tended to wobbly-necked hatchlings.
- A great blue heron stalking the shallow waters along the shoreline and catching a long-spotted snake eel and its entertaining efforts to swallow the meal.
- A large, colourful land iguana purposefully rolling a fallen cactus fruit on the ground to remove the plant’s irritating spines.
- A frightened school of sardines leaping out of the water as they were chased by a determined penguin and having a brown pelican join the fray hoping to capitalize on the confusion and earn a free meal.
- A male frigatebird deftly sifts the surface sand above a green sea turtle nest hoping to snag a careless hatchling.
- A grunting amorous male giant tortoise mating with a partner, half his size, for over 30 minutes.
The Galapagos Islands has always been among my top photo destinations for wildlife photography, one that never disappoints me which explains why I have happily returned to them repeatedly in my 46-year freelance career. Consider joining us in when next we offer an Ultimate Galapagos voyage where I guarantee you will be overwhelmed by the photographic delights of Darwin’s enchanted islands.
