We next went to Puerto Ayora, the main commercial port on Isla Santa Cruz. We boarded a bus to take us to the Charles Darwin Research Centre. Among other research, is a program to breed giant tortoises. We saw lots of young ones that had hatched that year.
They are released when they are about five years old onto the island they originally came from. The program has been so successful that this year, 2023, is the last year they will need to breed tortoises from Santiago island as the species has recovered.
We then went on a 4/5 km bike ride on the public road. I had to push my bike up several of the hills but my grandson did them all easily. We ended at a local sugar cane mill.
They had a hand mill for crushing the sugar cane.
My grandson and another person had a go at turning the wheel to crush the sugar cane. The farmer has been growing and producing sugar from sugar cane for over forty years. He now has a mechanised method for crushing the cane which halves the production time.
The farmer then showed us the tin bath where he leaves the sugar to ferment for a few days before running it through a still to produce moonshine at about 55% proof.
He threw some of the liquor on the fire to show us its strength.
We all got to try the moonshine – it was a lot smoother than I expected. We bought a bottle to bring back with us.
The farmer also grows coffee and cocoa. He showed us how he prepares the coffee beans and also the cocoa.
We had lunch at a natural tortoise reserve in the highlands. The giant tortoises wander freely in their natural environment. The landowners have to keep spaces in their fences for the tortoises to get through if they want to – similar to our hedgehog tunnels in the UK. We saw about 30-40 giant tortoises wandering about, some as old as 100 and some youngsters of about 20.
We then stopped at a lava tube where a barn owl was roosting. The barn owl just sat there while we took photos and wandered past.
The lava tunnel was not very long but the steps at the far end had loads of spiders sitting in their webs. The guide walked ahead brushing them away so by the time I got there it was quite clear. My grandson who is rather tall had to bend down to stop him getting cobwebs and spiders in his hair.
The next day we made two stops at San Cristobel Island. The first stop was an early start with a walk at 6.30 in the morning. The ships are allocated dates and times when they can visit places to ensure the islands are not over visited.
Our walk was to find the red-footed booby which only lives on a couple of the islands. San Cristobel is one of the oldest islands in the Galapagos and our path was among the rocks.
We found several red-footed boobies including a fluffy white one on its nest in the bushes.
A pair of the red-footed boobies were sharing sticks on their nest.
There were some blue-footed boobies as well and a Nazca booby. There were several finches and more frigate birds flying around.
We came back to the ship for breakfast and collected our gear for deep-water snorkelling. We saw brightly coloured fish, a sea turtle, and a ray – sea lions swam around us.
We saw a goat on the cliff while we were snorkelling. Goats were introduced onto the islands by sailors, hoping they could use them as fresh food next time they visited. Unfortunately, they have now become a pest and there are regular culls of them.
In the afternoon we went to the Cerro Colorado Tortoise Reserve in the highlands of San Cristobel. The reserve is breeding giant tortoises and releasing them back into the wild onto the island they originally came from.
The population of giant tortoises was almost completely destroyed as the ships used to take tortoises for food. The tortoises would last for months on board without food or water so were easy to maintain. If the ship got into trouble, the tortoises were just jettisoned overboard. There are now 11 species of giant tortoise, down from the original 15, but their numbers are recovering due to the breeding program.
The sanctuary has tortoises wandering around in semi-captivity as well as those growing up. These tortoises were saddlebacks. They have long necks and when fighting each other, extend their necks and the longest neck is the winner!
We saw lots of yellow warblers.
A feral cat came near and the warblers flew to the tree tops making a huge noise. There was a mocking bird around but it was hard to see.
The next day we went for a walk on Santa Fe Island. It is not a very high island but it was very hot. Santa Fe has many mature prickly cacti, some a hundred years old, as they don’t have many predators eating them – apart from a few iguanas.
There were many sea lions on the beach – we encountered them on all our landings.
We also saw the Galapagos hawk and several mocking birds.
We saw Santa Fe land iguanas, both male and female – the male being the larger. As they walked along, they clicked their heads.
They even walked between us as we stood there, and watched us as we watched them eating.
We did some more snorkelling at Santa Fe, then went for a walk round Santa Cruz Sur – this time it was a dry landing. Here were land iguanas and Nasca boobies.
Again the landscape was different.
There were several Nazca boobies along the cliff.
Swallow-tailed gulls had made their nest there are were rearing their young.
There were lava lizards and land iguanas here as well.
We saw a land iguana standing on its hind legs to reach and eat a prickly pear cactus.
What an experience! I have just returned from a visit to the Galapagos islands and would say to everyone – do go and see the marvellous wildlife.
I spent six days on board MS Santa Cruz II, a Hurtigruten expedition. There were only fourteen guests, so we had an exceptional time.
We landed at Baltra airport. We had to hand over our Transit Control Card (TCC) – cost $20. Our carry-on luggage was x-rayed and checked that we were not bringing any fruit or seeds into the Galapagos. One-use plastics are also banned there. We also had to pay the Galapagos National Park entrance fee of $100. Our hold luggage was subject to a K9 inspection – a dog sniffed it all to check for contraband.
Then we left the airport to get on our coach. Outside were cactus and tropical plants and in among them our first encounter with iguanas. Two were just sitting there basking in the heat and a third was wandering around.
A ten-minute bus ride and we boarded a panga to go out to our ship. No sooner had we arrived at our ship and had our safety briefing, then we left for our first landing, on Mosquera Islet. Ahead of us was a long white beach. We went by panga and had a wet landing where we paddled to get on shore.
All visitors to Galapagos must be accompanied by a certified naturalist guide, and our one was so knowledgeable and answered all our questions.
On the beach were sea lions, having a nap or just lying there ignoring us. There was a pelican by the edge of the shore fishing, sally light-foot crabs on the rocks, lava lizards hot-footing it on the sand, and a marine iguana lying on a log.
None of the animals and birds were concerned about us, they didn’t run away as we got close. We had to stay two metres away from them but sometimes they would approach us.
As well as the pelican we saw frigate birds and the red-billed tropic bird – a beautiful white bird with a long, long tail. Later on, we spotted a yellow warbler on the sand near to a whale skeleton.
This is the account of an expedition cruise around the Falkland Islands in March 2020. This is the final instalment of the cruise on MS Fram, an explorer ship run by Hurtigruten, which visited the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands.
This blog only shows a few of the pictures from the trip. Many more can be seen in the YouTube video (link at the end).
We were at sea for two days from South Georgia to the Falkland Islands. While at sea there were albatross and petrels and other sea birds. There were also hourglass dolphins – black and white – swimming beside the ship.
Stanley, capital of the Falkland Islands
The Falkland Island trip began at Stanley, the capital of the Islands, where I went on a nature walk from Whalebone Cove to Gypsy Cove. The weather started out misty but the sun came out later. The guide pointed out many birds and plants that live on the Falklands.
I saw upland goose; kelp goose; turkey vulture; Falklands skua; blackish oystercatcher; pied or Magellanic oystercatcher; Falklands steamer duck, known locally as the Logger Duck, a flightless bird found only on the Falklands; Falklands thrush; long-tailed meadowlark; dark-faced ground tyrant; Magellanic or Jackass penguin; black-crowned night heron.
Steamer duckDark faced ground tyrantBlack-crowned night heron
We saw some low-growing plants that were diddle-dee bushes. They had red berries which are made into jam – they also make a sauce similar to cranberry sauce that goes well with upland goose. We also saw scurvy grass which had a citrus taste, wild celery, small fern, tall fern, tussac grass, native boxwood (hebe), marsh marigold and balsam bog which looked as though it was moss growing on a rock but was the whole plant.
Balsam bog
There are still mines from the Falkland War being found and disarmed.
Shags on rock near Gypsy Cove
In the afternoon I wandered about the town seeing the cathedral and an excellent historic dockyard museum. It was interesting seeing the post office with its red telephone boxes and post boxes – it seemed more British than home in England.
Stanley post office
We then had excursions on several of the islands that make up the Falklands archipelago: Saunders, Carcass, West Point, and New Island.
There were many shags flying around on the way to Saunders Island. The weather was clear skies and sun. Saunders Island had white sandy beaches and emerald water making it look quite tropical. No trees grow on the island.
Saunders Island
There were four colonies of penguins: magellanic, king, rockhopper and gentoo. It was quite a long walk up a hill, Mount Richards, to get to the rockhopper colony and then even higher to the black-browed albatross rookery with the babies on their nests. Some were starting to fledge and were flexing their wings.
King penguins with youngYoung albatross flexing its wings
Saunders Island is privately owned and the owners have about 4000 sheep. It was strange seeing sheep and penguins together on the hillside. There was a shop which was a landrover with the owner of the island selling a few odds and ends from the back.
Sheep, penguins and geese
There were caracara birds which reminded me of pigeons in that they were pecking around looking for anything to eat. They are scavengers.
Next stop was Carcass Island which was only a short distance from Saunders Island. There was an 8k walk to Leopard Bay where there were more penguins. The walk was on grass over where the tractors go so it was an easy walk.
There were tussac birds – like small blackbirds – running around the beach. They were very tame. There were several caracara around as well as geese. The best part was seeing Cobb’s Wren – a bird endemic to the Falklands and then only on islands that are rat free. The wren was hopping about among the stones on the beach. It didn’t mind us standing there watching.
Tussac birdCobb’s wren
The next morning was a beautiful sunny day with just a few whispy clouds, perfect for exploring West Point Island. The water in the bay was extremely clear and the sand was fine and white with large smooth rocks and pebbles.
We walked from the jetty at West Point Island over rolling hills to the other side of the island where there was a colony of rockhopper penguins and albatross nesting together. The albatrosses were mostly ready to fledge. We had to walk through six feet high tussac grass to get to where we could see the birds on the cliff.
At one time a caracara came into the nesting area. All the penguins made a racket and pointed their beaks towards the caracara.
Albatross and rockhopper penguins
On the walk I saw several tyrants, long-tailed meadowlark (known locally as a robin or military starling because of its red breast) and a Falklands thrush which was similar to our thrush. A caracara went around the head of a couple of walkers in front of me.
Our final day in the Falkland Islands was New island. We landed firstly at South Harbour where there were rusty ruins of a whaling station that was active for about eight years in the early 1900s. The water in the bay was clear and there was a lot of seaweed about. On some rocks on the beach were hundreds of mussels. We walked up a hill over diddle dee bushes for a scenic view over the bay.
Remains of whaling station at New Island
There was a colony of gentoo penguins. A group of them seemed curious and came down towards us from the colony. The group would follow each other down, then stop as the leader became a bit wary, then they’d walk down a bit further. Occasionally they’d stop, turn around and dash back before coming down again. There were also a few caracara gliding in the wind. They came quite close.
Our final stop was Settlement Harbour. There were a couple of houses, a museum and a gift shop (closed). The water again was very clear and the beach fine white sand. In the water was the wreck of a boat, Protector, from the late 1930s. She was brought to the Falklands for a sealing venture and was eventually run onto the beach at Settlement Harbour.
Wreck of Protector in Settlement Harbour
On this landing we had two routes to follow, one to a penguin and albatross rookery and the other to a viewpoint. The rookery had rockhopper penguins and albatross chicks. Shags are usually there as well but they had already left. There was a very strong breeze from on top of the cliffs when we were there, but there were several rocks to perch on to watch the birds. Between the cliffs was a gap where the water from the sea surged in.
Rockhopper penguins
Caracara were not far away flying overhead. I walked back and saw a tyrant hovering. There were many geese on the hillside.
The next challenge was a climb up a 200 metre hill. It was easy footing but the first part was very steep. At the top was a WW2 lookout post built of dry stone. It was hollow on one side so you could lie in there with the stone walls protecting you from the prevailing wind. There was a magnificent view from the top of the hill.
View looking down to Settlement Harbour
Every island had wonderful scenery and the abundant bird wildlife so friendly. The Falkland Islands are definitely worth a return visit.
You can see many more interesting pictures of the Falkland Islands through my YouTube video:
Nannie RaRa 