Hi everyone! This post is going to be a continuation of our previous post, Galápagos Trip – Part I, so if you haven’t checked this blog out you totally should 🙂 Otherwise, here is the rest of our trip …

Day 6 (Sunday) – Santa Fe

After an early breakfast, we journeyed to Santa Fe for 10 minutes of individual sea lion reflection. We learned there is only one male sea lion in the pod of many females, and he must fight the other males for control of his group. The male sea lion was massive, and we made sure to avoid provoking him. Then, we hiked around the islands to look for land iguanas. We saw some pretty massive ones hiding under rocks and some cool prickly pear cacti and their cactus finches. 

After the hike, we immediately went snorkeling. Right after jumping into the water, we began to hear high-pitched whistles and clicks. Seconds later, we were surrounded by hundreds of dolphins! They were swimming up to, around, and beneath us, exploring and investigating our group. After spending a good 20 minutes swimming with the pod, we moved toward the island shore and explored the rocks. An eagle ray swam below us, and a graceful sea turtle passed by. When we returned to the boat the dolphins followed, and they jumped around the front of the boat excitedly. 

After lunch we headed to South Plazas, which was one of the coolest places we saw on the trip. The landing dock was affectionately known as the sea lion “day-care” spot, and we saw many juvenile sea lions swimming and sunbathing. The shore was littered with prickly pear catus trees and land iguanas strolling around. It almost felt like walking around on Jurassic Earth – the land iguanas strutting around seemed like what we would imagine the dinosaurs to have been like, the dominant beings on the island, with little birds flying around them and the most foreign-looking plants. At the peak of the island, the ground gave way to a drop straight to the sea of black volcanic rocks. Swallow-tailed gulls and shearwater birds flew along the cliffs, and blue-footed boobies dove into the waves. Lava lizards with bright red necks scurried along the path in front of us. At the top of the island we saw the “bachelor pad” where all of the single male sea lions went to sulk. On the path back to the dock we saw a Galápagos hawk fly away from the remains of its prey. 

That night, we watched Your Inner Fish as a class. It’s the TV series rendition of the book we mentioned in blog post 1 – again we highly recommend it!!! It’s a cool watch that will teach you the evolution of our species by looking into different features we inherited from our very ancient fish ancestors.

Day 7 (Monday) – Rabida and Bartolomé

We spent the morning exploring Rabida Island, which is known for its red sand. Despite the pouring rain, the island was very beautiful.

On the beach, we saw a group of Galápagos mockingbirds fighting over their territory. They were small and adorable, so it was fun to watch them chirp at each other. You could almost imagine the vicious argument happening between them. 

Like Floreana, Rabida had a brackish-water lagoon home to flamingos. Interestingly, we saw a North American Sandpiper in the water, which must have flown quite a distance to get there. The island was littered with purple morning glories and over-watered prickly pear cacti. 

After the hike around the island, we snorkeled around it.

On this snorkel, we also saw some really long and thin ribbon-looking fish, called trumpetfish! They were very skittish, but if you stayed still and just floated in the water, they would swim up to you. From the water, we also got a fantastic view of blue-footed boobies resting on the cliffs above and of marine iguanas clinging to the rocks.

We had our second snorkel of the day exploring the waters around Bartolomé. We even saw some penguins chilling on the rocks above the water. 

We ended our evening hiking up Bartolomé. It was more of a walk than a hike, as the entire path was made of wooden steps. There were also some funky rocks that were deceptively light. The only plants that could survive on the barren island were small shrubs like milkweed that had adapted a “sunscreen-like” layer to protect them from the sun. The view from the top was incredible and can be seen on many Galápagos postcards. At the bottom, Fausto had to fight a sea lion blocking our path to get back on the boat. 

In the evening, we had storytime, and Rob shared one of his favorite stories, “Humility.”

Day 8 (Tuesday) – Bartolomé and Santiago Island

We started the day off with an early snorkel around Bartolomé to see the penguins. Unfortunately, we only saw one penguin, but we also saw a stingray and a tiger snake eel.  

After breakfast, we ventured onto land on Santiago Island (which was right next door) and explored the black lava rocks. The island was coated in volcanic rocks with all sorts of cool formations. There was both A’a lava, which forms from fast, explosive eruptions, and lots of really fun pahoehoe flows (the slower flowing, more viscous lava). The pahoehoe flows had so many different shapes – it was so much fun to try to describe what each one looked like (it’s like the more geo-core version of coming up with images in the clouds!). We also saw really interesting colors in different layers of the lava, perhaps caused by interactions between the cooling lava and seawater. During our walk, we took a break to discover how hot the volcanic rock could get by laying down on it for 10 minutes under the beating sun –Emma managed to get sunburned from just this short exposure, so it’s truly impressive that so many animals call this dry and intensely hot habitat their home.

During lunch, we boated around Daphne Major, the famous island where the Grants did their finch research. From the boat, we could see the landing dock where the researchers had to leap from the ocean to the island, and the little trail that they hiked up to get to their camp site. It’s so cool to think that research has been happening on that island for so many decades and that fundamental questions about mutations and evolutionary biology were answered using the data collected right there! The waves were crazy, and we had to hold onto our glasses to ensure they didn’t fly off the table. 

In the afternoon, we had our bittersweet last swim in the islands in Baltra Bay. Small fish swam by in the water, and sea lions rested on the shore. The men in the group dug a massive hole, but they soon lost it to a sea lion who chased them away and claimed it as his own. We ended the evening with a sand-soccer game and a beautiful sunset!

Before dinner we had a farewell meeting with the crew and spent the night stargazing and reflecting with each other on the deck. 

Day 9 (Wednesday) – Travel

In our final morning, we boated around a mangrove forest. Black-tipped reef sharks swam by the boat and sea turtles swam by in the water. Fausto explained that mangroves are a nursery for lots of baby animals, so reef sharks and rays come here to have their babies. Mangroves are pretty cool plants, as they can live in brackish water (being this salt-tolerant is rare in the plant world!) and work as filters to clean the nearby water for the good of the ecosystem. We also spotted a little ray leap out of the water and fall back in, and the peaceful quiet of the mangrove bay was frequently interrupted by pelicans diving to catch fish. It was a beautiful way to finally end our time in the Galápagos.

The rest of the day was spent on the long journey back to Caltech. Along the way, each person in our class drew an organism that we’d seen on the trip to put on a map of the islands.

We finally made it back to Pasadena on Thursday morning, 10 days after we had departed, exhausted but extremely fulfilled and inspired. This class and trip were transformative experiences for all of us and will absolutely be one of our highlights of Caltech! We hope you enjoyed reading about our trip!