Thomas
Giant tortoises
In the second of my pieces on the Galapagos Islands, we look at the animals.
The Galapagos are the only remaining archipelago with an almost complete species composition. That’s what makes them special.
Apparently 95% of the species Darwin would have seen are still on the islands – only 5% loss in the past 150 years. That’s remarkable given the fragile nature of the environment and testament to the conservation efforts on the Galapagos.
The biggest threats to the wildlife on the islands are introduced species: rats, cats, dogs, goats, donkeys, pigs, cattle and horses. The worst are really rats, cats and goats as it is very hard to catch & kill them.
Back in Darwin’s day, the biggest threat to the wildlife was humans. Hardly surprising when you realise that Darwin was basically on a hunting trip. He spent much of his time on the islands shooting things. When he set sail, the Beagle was carrying 32 giant tortoises as food for the return journey.
The Galapagos were in fact a form of drive through. Giant tortoises were unfortunate to be the ultimate sailor’s take away – they could be kept alive on a ship for months to provide fresh meat for the sailors on long voyages.
It wasn’t until many years later that Darwin began to develop his theory of evolution, helped by his observations of the finches on the Galapagos when he was a younger man.
Basically, each island had its own version of the finch but each with a distinctly shaped beak. He realised that each had evolved a subtly different shaped beak to adapt to the available food on each island.
Darwin actually never realised that the giant tortoises were also grouped into 13 sub-species, again evolved differently on each island.
So, the animals you see on a Galapagos holiday today are, give or take a goat, cat or rat, those which have evolved there over the course of millions of years.
In my previous article on the formation of the Galapagos Islands, I mentioned that we are presumably on Galapagos version II. We know this because the evolutionary span of the animals is greater than the geological age of the land.
That is to say that the animals are older than the land they inhabit. The assumption is therefore that there was an older archipelago which gradually drifted underwater as the earth’s plates shifted. The animals basically hopped off these and onto the newer islands we see now. That’s a gross simplification but I think gives you the gist of the story.
Join us on a Galapagos cruise holiday or find out more about the Galapagos Islands.
The amazing Boabab Lodge in the heart of the Huilo Huilo Biosphere Reserve
I have just finished making changes to our Patagonia Pirenwinkul holiday in southern Patagonia. It’s the last standing holiday from our original portfolio of adventure holidays so dates back to the year 2000.
I love this holiday, for me the Chilean Lake District and Patagonia are just the most beautiful areas imaginable. In fact I remember on my first visit there thinking, “That’s that then, I can’t expect to ever see anything more beautiful than this again in my life.”
We have traditionally run this deluxe adventure holiday as a group trip, just because frankly that was the only way to really offer this experience. Over the past couple of years though we have seen the emergence of some wonderful lodges which great activities.
This led me to take a look again at the Pirenwinkul holiday. I realised that for the same price we were charging for the group holiday, we could have people visit pretty much exactly the same places but stay in deluxe boutique style lodges with oodles of character and charm, in great locations being looked after by lodge based guides.
What we now have is a tailor made i.e. private departure holiday which can start on the day you want to go. You stay in a series of gems from the Huilo Huilo Biosphere Reserve to Puerto Varas to Torres del Paine. You choose what to do each day from hiking to rafting to horse riding to mountain biking. You eat incredibly well. And all for the same price we were charging for the group holiday.
Suddenly it looks to me like the most amazing honeymoon or just a top notch tailor made adventure holiday to Chile.
By the way, just so you know, Pirenwinkul (pron: pi-ren-win-cool) is the Mapuche word for the Milky Way. The first part of this trip is spent within the Mapuche lands (Chile’s largest indigenous group) which encompass the bulk of the Chilean Lake District. Just in case it comes up in a pub quiz or Trivial Pursuits any time soon.
Find out more about Chile with our Guide to Chile or read about our Chile holidays.
High in the Atacama Desert, standing on Toco
In the light of the recent global attention on the Atacama desert following the just magnificent rescue of the miners from the San José mine, I though we deserved a picture of the Atacama.
This photo of our client, David Jones, sums it up for me.
This is him standing up on top of Toco Volcano. This forms part of our Atacama Patagonia walking holiday. It’s really a fairly short walk since we drive you up and out of San Pedro to the trailhead near the top.
However, you are still gaining about 600m altitude and that’s starting at 5,000m. That’s right, this photo is taken at just over 5,600m which is very much equivalent to the altitude of Kilamanjaro. Of course South America, and Chile/Argentina in particular have rather a lot of very high mountains.
Toco is somewhat overshadowed by the next door Licancabur Volcano. But to climb Licancabur is a real expedition. To climb Toco is a walk, a lung-straining walk, but nothing more than a slow walk.
At the top, the reward is the view. The landscape all around is over 3,000m below your feet. That’s almost 2 miles of space underneath you. The views are incredible, particularly given the purity of the air in these parts.
You can see into Bolivia and Argentina. It is the sort of place you feel quite elated, partly because of the views and the sense of achievement, and partly because you know you will be out of the cold and back in San Pedro in time for a late lunch.
I just thought this photo sums up the beauty and joy of the Atacama Desert and mirrors the elation we saw when the miners came out into the fresh air after 69 days. Makes you appreciate the joy of being outdoors, which is really the whole point of our holidays.
Find out more about our walking holidays to Chile.