These islands are a very unique place in the world, there is no doubt about it. There is a high degree of endemism, you find species from different hemispheres living together and animals show no fear. That’s enough to consider this an amazing archipelago worth visiting. But it is important to remember that all oceanic islands are like the Galapagos, in the sense that they let us understand – like tiny laboratories – the processes that have shape life on our planet.
David Quammen wrote in his book, The Song of the Dodo, “the real significance of Galapagos is their fundamental resemblance to other places. They are representative. They are prototypically ordinary. What made them instructive to Darwin, and what makes them instructive to us, is that they are strange in precisely the same way other islands tend to be strange. Islands in general are biologically anomalous. The Galapagos, being anomalous, conform to pattern. They are unique and therefore they are normal.”
Punta Pitt, our morning destination, was the ideal place to reflect on what we learned this week, to put together concepts and feelings. Red footed boobies perched on branches, sea lions were more playful than ever, with the naïve behavior so typical of isolated islands. We were surrounded by endemic birds like swallow tailed gulls and endemic daisies. We had extremely low tides and excellent visibility, and in the afternoon several species of sharks shared our site, Leon Dormido. Galapagos is unique and instructive, and it has touched the hearts of many, who are now our ambassadors to the world.
