The Scent of Adventure

June 18, 2002

Welcome to Episode 2 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Galápagos…

Eden and Miko stop amongst a profusion of blue and white moonflowers to wipe the sweat off their brows. The humidity is stifling.

“Funky,” Eden pronounces, surveying the surprisingly lush landscape of this part of Isla Isabela.

Its inhabitants are even funkier. A large male land iguana, still yellow from the mating season, saunters across the trail. Giant tortoises munch languidly on the overgrown vegetation.

Medical necessity calls our intrepid heroines and their companions away from the funky flora and fauna and back to the landing site. Ariel, a fellow passenger, has been running a fever that shows no signs of abating, so arrangements have been made for the Mistral to rendezvous with a ship that has a doctor aboard.

The doctor determines that Ariel is in no danger and soon the Mistral is once again underway.

Isla Fernandina is a wonderland of sally lightfoot crabs and sea lions. Huge marine iguanas bask in the sun. A lava heron in search of a meal perches on the edge of the pahoehoe lava.

Our fearless females are lured from the tidepools by nesting flightless cormorants. The turquoise-eyed birds, endemic to just two islands, are among the world’s rarest; at last count there were fewer than 1,400 individuals.

As if to drive home the humbling awareness of the fragility of life that inevitably accompanies encountering an endangered animal in the wild, the explorers stumble across a newborn sea lion resting by its exhausted mother.

“Umm, what’s that?” someone asks, pointing to a gelatinous red blob on the sand.

“That’s the placenta,” Bolivar, the naturalist guide, explains. “Still untouched by scavengers. The pup is probably less than an hour old.”

The party lingers by the sea lions until Bolivar calls out, “Dolphins! They’re not far. Let’s get back to the boat. We might be able to catch up with them!”

The chase is on! Hopeful, eager, and anxious, the Mistral’s passengers lean over the rail, only taking their eyes off the dolphins long enough to admire a passing fin whale.

And suddenly, the ship is surrounded by a large pod. Dolphins are riding the bow waves and leaping acrobatically. Delighted, the watching humans point and clap and cheer like children.

Eden seriously contemplates jumping into the cold, jellyfish-infested waters for a chance to swim with the dolphins. Uncharacteristically, she demonstrates some common sense and refrains, though several of the other passengers do make the attempt. It is all for naught, though, and they return to the ship shivering and covered in jellyfish stings. To ease their pain, Bolivar douses the swimmers in vinegar; for the rest of the night, the Mistral reeks of it.

“Doesn’t smell too bad in here,” Eden notes as our intrepid heroines step into their tiny cabin.

“Only because for once you didn’t go overboard.”

© Eden Feuer

In Darwin's Footsteps

June 17, 2002

Welcome to Episode 1 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Galápagos…

“Eek!”

Miko’s cry of surprise is only slightly muffled by her snorkel.

It is echoed by the other swimmers once they, too, spot the creatures that have materialized in the murky waters of Isla Isabela's Tagus Cove.

Playful sea lions cavort and frolic within touching distance. Clearly curious penguins come right up to masks.

Eden is entranced – and sorely missing her underwater camera, which flooded during the previous day’s snorkeling excursion.

Over lunch aboard the Mistral, the 74-foot motor yacht that is serving as home for the duration of the cruise, our intrepid heroines and their nine fellow travelers marvel and struggle for words to describe the experience. Amazing. Intense. Spiritual. None of them is quite adequate.

The promise of encounters of this kind, the opportunity to come face to face with species found nowhere else in the world – this is the siren song of the Enchanted Isles. It is that song that has beckoned to Eden over the years, sometimes loudly and insistently, other times quietly and gently, inexorably luring her to this volcanic archipelago off the coast of Ecuador.

But even Miko, who prefers a little more distance between her and a wild animal, cannot help but succumb to the spell cast by gular sac-inflating frigatebirds, dancing blue-footed boobies, and salt-snorting marine iguanas.

The magic does not dissipate in the searing midday heat of the Equator. The Mistral drops anchor at Elizabeth Bay and the travelers take to pangas (inflatable rafts similar to Zodiac boats) to view “tree lions,” Galápagos sea lions that climb mangrove trees and rest in their shade instead of hauling out on beaches and sunning themselves. Pacific green and hawksbill turtles, clearly visible in the shallow, clear waters of the lagoon, glide by gracefully.

Under the watchful eye of a circling Galápagos hawk, the panga makes its way out of the mangroves. The sun is low in the sky, the light golden and glorious, as the small boat passes three tiny islands in the bay where endemic penguins and sea lions pose next to giant prickly pear cacti. It is, Eden notes, a surreal juxtaposition - one that is only made possible by the odd alchemy of the Enchanted Isles. 

Be sure to tune in to Episode 2, when Yumiko and Eden go in search of that most symbolic of Galápagos fauna, the giant tortoise.

 © Eden Feuer