Introductions

Hi! My name is Juni Polansky, and I am a junior majoring in bioengineering and minoring in English. I applied for this course because I wanted the opportunity to explore my interest in environmental science and biology through the lens of evolution. Ever since I read Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything in high school I have wanted to learn more about evolution, and this course provided the perfect opportunity to combine learning with hands-on experiences. 

Hi! My name is Emma Isella, and I am a junior double majoring in geobiology and biology! I applied for this course because I’ve been fascinated by evolution, the study of how life began and proliferated into all the different forms we see today, since I first really learned about it in my high school biology class. (If anyone else has similar interests, the books I read in high school that really got me into the subject were Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin and Alien Oceans by Kevin Hand, I highlyhighly recommend both!!)

This class is undoubtedly one of the best Caltech has to offer, and we both feel so lucky and inspired by everything we experienced this term. We hope this blog post gives you a peek into one of the great classes you can take as a Caltech undergrad, and we encourage you to apply if you have the opportunity!

About the course

Bi/Ge/Ese 105, or Evolution, is a cross-listed biology, geology, and environmental science course co-taught by Professors Rob Phillips and Victoria Orphan. It is offered every other year, and only upperclassmen can apply for the course. The course is split between in-person lectures and lab sections, and we cover a variety of topics in evolution from basic genetics to how humans evolved. We also got to do some really fun labs! One of our favorites was when we visited the Occidental Moore Zoology Lab and got to see all of their bird specimens and measured the different sized beaks of birds! Another really fun lab we did was when we recreated the Luria-Delbruck experiment, which was a key experiment in the history of biology that established how mutations occur. And, of course, the class ends with an 8-day trip to the Galápagos Islands!

Day 1 (Tuesday) – Many many hours of travel :/

Our bus for the airport left campus at 6:30 AM, so we had to be up very early to make sure that we were not left behind. Our actual flight was around 10, so we ended up at the airport with a few hours to kill. We spent an hour stretching our legs, fueling up on coffee, and grabbing free snacks at the Priority Pass Member’s Club gaming station. Then, we settled down at the gate to do some reading preparation for the trip. We were tasked with reading Jonathan Weiner’s Pulitzer Prize winning Beak of the Finch, which is a fantastic read that we totally recommend. The book follows the story of Peter and Rosemary Grant, the “greats” of evolutionary biology, who revolutionized our understanding of evolution through their studies of Darwin’s finches on Daphne Major Island in the Galápagos. We also were given a list of research papers covering various studies in evolutionary biology, so some of us started on those while waiting for the plane.

The rest of the day was spent traveling. Our first flight was from LAX to Houston, Texas (IAH), and after a few hour layover we caught another flight from IAH to Quito, Ecuador (UIO). During our layover in Houston we explored the airport attempting to find a decent place to eat. Unfortunately, due to a series of unfortunate events, we ended up eating Panda Express. 

By the time we ended up in Quito it was almost midnight, and after getting through customs we took a bus to the hotel (and conked out).

Day 2 (Wednesday) – Santa Cruz

Unfortunately, we had another early start to the day and had to meet in the hotel lobby for breakfast at 7 AM. However, the breakfast more than made up for the early rising (Ecuador has fantastic fruit). We then shuttled back to the airport to catch our flight to Baltra. As the plane descended towards the landing pad we could see Daphne Major and Minor out of the window, which was super cool. 

When we got out of the plane we were instantaneously hit by a wave of humidity. We got stuck in customs, which was a rather unpleasant experience, but we got a pretty neat Galápagos turtle stamp on our passports. 

After we finished, we took a bus to the dock where we took a quick ferry to Santa Cruz. We boarded another bus, which took us through the highlands of Santa Cruz island. On the way, we stopped to see Los Gemelos, a pair of sinkholes formed by collapsed empty magma chambers. Here, we also found a unique Galápagos plant, colloquially called Darwin’s giant daisy! Though they look like normal trees, they are actually most closely related to daisies and are endemic to the islands. 

We continued on and began to see lots of giant tortoises hidden in the tall bushes along the side of the road. At one point, our tour guide, Fausto, even had to get out of the boat to push a tortoise that was blocking the road to the other side!

Tortoise on the road! 

Eventually (after some turtle pushing), we made it to Rancho Guayabillo, a farm where a lot of giant tortoises live. There, we also had an incredible three course meal while watching the tortoises roam and munch on grass all around us. Afterwards, we put on some tall boots and wandered through the mud in the natural habitat behind the farm to search for Galápagos Giant tortoises. There were so many tortoises – we even saw two turtles mating! After our exploration, we bought postcards at the gift shop to mail at Post Office Bay the next morning. 

After finishing our bus-ride across Santa Cruz, we ended up at the dock where we took a Zodiac boat to our ship, the Grand Daphne. 

After a quick meeting with some of the crew, our professors, Rob and Victoria, played “rock, scissors, paper” (as called by Rob) to determine which roommate pair got which room. We were treated to a delicious dinner and spent the rest of the evening writing our postcards and journaling. 

Day 3 (Thursday) – Floreana 

This was our first day waking up on the boat, and we were woken by loud music blasted over the boat PA system, which we soon learned would become a daily service very generously provided by Fausto. After a quick, early breakfast at 7 AM, we donned our raincoats (it was pouring) and boarded the Zodiacs to travel to Post Office Bay on Floreana Island. Post Office Bay got its name because a mail barrel was installed there in 1793. The idea was that travelers to the Galápagos would leave their mail in the barrel and take any mail that was on their travel routes and deliver it (by hand). Though the barrel has been changed out over the years, it still exists, so you can send mail without any stamps! We left our postcards in the barrel and attempted to go through the pile of cards that had been left by people before us without getting everything soaking wet. We took the cards that were near places that we could deliver, which included Irvine, CA; Fairfax, CA; Pasadena, CA; Boston, MA; Paris, France; Austin, TX, Lexington, KY; and more! As of now, one of our classmates has had two of her letters delivered to Fairfax and Belgium!

Unfortunately, after a while, the swarm of mosquitoes and rain became too much to bear, so we grabbed our letters and hiked towards our next destination – a lava tube! Traveling into the cave was a little scary (it was still pouring outside and all), but the view inside was super cool. The cooled lava had left really interesting drippy textures on the sides of the tunnel, and there were small salt stalactites forming on the ceiling that sparkled when we shined our flashlights at them. Once we climbed far enough into the tube, the floor was submerged as we had reached sea level. Here, Rob and a few of us decided to go for a swim in the water – it was cold, but lots of fun! 

After exiting the tunnel, we spent some time exploring the beach. We saw a torrent of muddy water flooding down from inland to the beach, which made us retroactively question whether going into the lava tube had been a good idea (editor’s note: do not go underground during a flash flood!). Since most of us were already soaking wet, we abandoned our rain jackets entirely and took a quick dip in the water before boarding the Zodiacs back to the ship. 

We returned to the ship to warm towels and yummy snacks (sweet potato chips, raisins, peanuts) – the crew spoiling us to the fullest. After we dried off and changed into our bathing suits, we boarded the boats again to go for our first snorkel! We took the Zodiacs to a place called Devil’s Crown, a semi-underwater volcanic crater with the rim of sharp black basalt poking up through the waves. The water was surprisingly warm, and despite the rain, we got a pretty good view of the sea life. 

Juni and another classmate diving to get a better view of the school of fish!

We saw many tropical fish, white-tipped reef sharks, starfish, sea lions, and more. We even caught a pod of dolphins and was able to boat over to where they were and jump in to swim with them! 

Our first glimpse of a bottlenose dolphin! 

It was absolutely incredible to hear their whistles and clicks underwater. 

The next several hours were spent eating lunch, relaxing, and journaling about what we saw. At 3 PM, we boarded the Zodiacs again for round two of snorkeling. The current had picked up a little, so the swim was intermittently split between pushes against the current and chill moments to ride the tide and marvel at the underwater world. Fausto spooked the class by throwing a pufferfish at one of our classmates, causing the poor fish to puff up and frantically swim away. We even saw a sea turtle!

After drying off from snorkeling, we traveled to Floreana again to search for flamingos. We also saw some cool Grapsus grapsus (sally lightfoot crabs). We hiked a short distance to a lagoon in the middle of the island where we saw a large group of flamingos. Unfortunately, there was an inordinate amount of mosquitos swarming us, so we were not able to watch for too long. 

On the other side of the island we explored a “no swim” sea turtle habitat beach and did our best grapsus impressions. 

At 7 PM, we had a welcome meeting with the whole crew and during dinner Fausto told us the legend of the history of Floreana. Originally, there were only two inhabitants of the island, two Germans named Dr. Fredrich Rittner and his companion Dora Stauch. However, a few years later, inspired by the words of Dr. Rittner, Margaret and Heinz Wittmer and their son joined them. Soon after, Baroness Wagner de Bosquet arrived with her three lovers, Lorenz (the rich one), Phillippson (the hot one), and Valdivieso (the native Ecuadorian). This brought drama and discord to the islands, but a few years later the Baroness and Phillipson disappeared and were never found again. A few months later, the principal suspect, Lorenz, was found dead on Marchena presumed by shipwreck. 

We ended the night with a surprise on the back of the ship – one of our classmates had gone out to see if he could see the island in the dark, and instead saw a bunch of fins circling the ship. Eight Galápagos sharks were swimming around the back of the boat! 

Day 4 (Friday) – Espanola

The day started with music blasting over the PA system at the early hour of 7 AM (though later we’d realize that this was actually the latest wakeup we’d get…) for breakfast before we spent the next few hours on the front of the boat watching the journey around Espanola Island. Unfortunately, due to avian flu we were not able to land directly on the island, hence the ride around it. It was very hot outside, but we got to see Nazca boobies flying above us, the iconic Espanola water blow hole, and the rare Galápagos hawk! 

Some sketches of the birds we saw while boating around the oldest island in the archipelago. 

Around 11 AM, we congregated in the living room for the first round of group presentations. Before the trip each student in the class had chosen a plant, animal, or natural phenomenon from the Galápagos to research, write a paper on, and make a presentation on. Various topics presented throughout the trip included blue-footed boobies, Galápagos sharks, Darwin’s Giant Daisies, the Albatross, rice rats, crabs, penguins, invasive species, and volcanoes. 

Once presentations wrapped up we went snorkeling on a “baby diving reef.” One of the coolest things we saw on the trip was a group of hammerhead sharks swimming below us at the bottom of the reef. We also saw eels, sea turtles, and white-tipped reef sharks (see image to the left)! 

We returned for another round of snorkeling a few hours later at Gardner Island, another spot nearby. There, we had the incredible opportunity to swim alongside playful sea lions. We were mesmerized, watching the young sea lions swimming and twirling around us. 

Fausto also showed us how to blow bubble rings from underwater, which we attempted to varying levels of success. 

Our sea lion adventures continued in the afternoon when we spent a few hours on a nearby beach covered in sea lions relaxing. We were told to take 10 minutes by ourselves to sit and study nature, so we chose to use this time to study a group of sea lions in front of us. For such cute animals, they make the most atrocious noises! It was pretty interesting to study their dynamics. While the sea lions were lying on the sand in groups, there was generally segregation between individuals unless it was a mom and pup pair. It was adorable to watch the pups cuddle with their mothers, but sometimes, if they got a little too close, their mom would make a noise and turn in the opposite direction. Guess there is a limit to how much snuggling one mom can take! After watching the sea lions for a bit, we spent the last part of our time on the island taking a dip in the crystal clear blue water. It was a refreshing swim! A few sea lions came into the water and swam by us. 

Day 5 (Saturday) – San Cristóbal 

We awoke (very early) at the ripe hour of 5:30 AM for a boat ride around San Cristóbal. We traveled through a tunnel in the rock, where we could see a rainbow and the iconic Kicker Rock, which was one of the first sketches Darwin made of the Galápagos islands. We also saw the iconic Cathedral, which is a small bay only accessible by water. Looking up at the cliffs we created our trip’s standard unit of measurement, a JSU (one Juni-standard-unit: approximately 5 feet long and Juni-sized width). We saw many blue-footed boobies flying above us and watched them dive into the water to catch fish. 

After the boat tour, we stopped at the beach and spent almost an hour exploring the habitat. We saw black marine iguanas strutting along the beach. Unfortunately, because it was an El Niño year, the marine iguana population was suffering, and there were nowhere near as many iguanas as in other years. For reference, normally the beach should be covered with them, but in our case, we only saw a few scattered iguanas (90% of the marine iguanas die during El Niño due to changes in the water currents that increase the water temperature). 

The marine iguanas, which Darwin called the “imps of darkness”

We also saw the iconic Darwin’s flycatcher, and one of our classmates was able to convince the bird that she was a tree by holding out a stick and convincing it to land on it. 

In the shallow waters by the beach we saw black-tipped reef sharks swimming about. We also got a front row view of the blue-footed boobies’ impressive dives. 

The most beautiful beach we’ve ever seen

After the beach, we had breakfast on the boat and changed to head back to the beach to swim. The water was gorgeous, and it was probably one of the most beautiful swims we had all trip. One of our classmates and Rob raced and swam some “laps” in the deeper waters while the rest of us frolicked. On the Zodiac back to the ship, Fausto told us we could see jellyfish by leaning over the side of the boat and cupping our hands in the water. He then pushed us into the water – the first of many “pranks” he pulled on us this trip. Jokes on him, though, because we just got a bonus swim! We even convinced him to let us jump off the prow of the boat into the water a few times!

Once everyone was back on-board, the boat started moving towards Kicker Rock. Unfortunately, due to San Cristóbal’s monopoly on tourism in the area, we were not able to snorkel there. However, nonetheless, the view from the boat was pretty great, and we were able to see male frigatebirds courting with their red gular pouches puffed up. 

Comparing our view of Kicker Rock with Darwin’s own sketch, we realized how accurate he was! It’s really cool to trace Darwin’s steps through the islands and think about how far science has come since his visit here.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring San Cristóbal. In the Zodiac on the way to the dock we saw many sea lions taking over the other Zodiacs in people’s anchored boats. We laughed at the sight, but this would come back to haunt us later when some sea lions climbed onto the Grand Daphne later on in the night. Once on the island, Fausto led us to the Interpretation center, where we learned about the history of the Galápagos Islands. We also contributed to the tourism economy and picked up souvenirs for our friends and family back home. 

Class picture with a statue of Charles Darwin and the Beagle. 

In the evening, we re-took the evolution test that we had been given on the first day of class. It was really interesting to see how far we had come in our knowledge and understanding of the topics.