Latinalicious: The South America Diaries Read Free Page A

swim with them, too!
    They’ll chase your boat through the blue. They’ll waddle up to you on the beach and waddle back into the surf, and then turn around to see if you’re following, like puppy dogs. If you’re not, they’ll do the same again until you step into the water. This experience alone made the cruise worthwhile, I think. You don’t have to do a cruise in order to see the sea lions, though. You can go out to the islands on day tours from Santa Cruz if you buy a $400 (average) return flight from Quito.
    It’s worth remembering, however, that most of these day tours are overpriced and the guides — many of them locals with no qualifications — are known to be considerably less enthusiastic than actual naturalists, like Andreas, who are paid really well to work on the higher-end cruises and will tell you so many interesting facts as you go that your head will spin.
    One field trip the other day saw us beaching our Zodiac (an inflatable dinghy for the uninformed) on sands so white I thought I’d be blinded. The whiteness sloped down into some of the clearest seawater on earth. It was as translucent as tap water. This was Gardner Bay, Isla Española — in the far southeast of the Galápagos archipelago and almost four million years old. Make sure your cruise includes a stop here and don’t book it if it doesn’t. This is without a doubt one of the most unspoiled … no, make that the most unspoiled part of the planet I have ever laid eyes on. It was actually surreal.
    Lazing on this beach we were able to stand, sit or even lie within one metre of the sea lions, ‘but no closer than one metre — that’s the rule,’ Andreas told us sternly. We all spent hours posing for the obligatory photos as these creatures, some of them huge and menacing-looking, some just curious babies, eyed us in equal wonder. There is seriously nothing cuter than a baby sea lion. And there’s nothing more impressive than spotting a cluster of a thousand or so marine iguanas, just lounging in the sun like dinosaurs who forgot to become extinct.

    Surely a dream-come-true moment.
    Andreas told us one story of a man who was caught at the airport with a marine iguana in his backpack. God knows how he thought he would get it to wherever he was going, but these creatures are so placid it’s not hard to believe that you could scoop a few up and whisk away with them. They smell pretty bad, though. I’m not sure you’d want one, really.
    None of the animals seem to have any fear of humans in the Galápagos, and Andreas explained that it’s because none of them — maybe with the exception of that poor iguana — have ever been harmed by humans. Every few months, they shut certain islands to cruise ship passengers and open different ones to encourage the continuation of each natural habitat without disturbance. The US$100 entrance fee, which everyone must pay in cash upon arrival at the Galápagos airport, is spent purely on maintaining this unique part of the world and its precious, rare ecosystems.
    Charles Darwin first noted that the finches on each Galápagos island varied in the shape and size of their beaks, and thus, his theory of natural selection was born in 1839. It appeared that these finches had originally come from mainland South America, that they had colonised the islands at some point and had then over time evolved their distinct beaks according to their needs in each different island environment.
    To this day, the Galápagos National Park Service and conservation teams are so concerned with keeping every island immaculate and individual that the cruise ship staff have been told to make all passengers wash their feet and shoes after each island visit to avoid cross-contamination. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been hosed down on this cruise. I’m actually surprised Farzana and I weren’t put in quarantine before we were allowed to visit … but then, the authorities aren’t aware of my filthy thoughts