84 » OpenRoad Driver
It’ s Day Three in the Galápagos, where I’ m spending a week visiting five islands in the archipelago on a small passenger ship, The Eric. With nineteen co-travelers the ship is small enough to venture close to the bays and coves of islands with names as colourful as the species they shelter: Floreana, San Cristóbal, Española and Santa Cruz.
By day we kayak and snorkel in aquiline water, taking short hikes into the islands’ interiors to explore the birdlife, mammals, reptiles and amphibians that inhabit them. With no other ships nearby we have the beaches and coves to ourselves, giving our journey an Eden-like quality. We are Darwinesque travelers stepping back in time to an untouched paradise, a place where we’ re never once perceived as a threat or danger by the iguanas, sea lions, turtles, stingrays and many species of birds that we encounter.
We’ d like to believe the islands are truly untouched, but several have been scathed by human encounters over the years, tainted by human predation and the introduction of black rats, goats and feral cats that have endangered the endemic species. As we approach Floreana Island, we notice a small cat swiftly navigating the rocky cliffs. Benavides swears quietly under his breath and turns to our group with a solemn face.“ The goats we managed to get rid of here,” he says.“ There are programs to eradicate the cats, too, but clearly we’ ve not gotten all of them yet.”
The cats, released over the years by the 100-odd full-time residents of Floreana, are a problem because they threaten the wildlife, feeding on lava lizards, mockingbirds, finches and turtle eggs. Still, the island is flourishing. Disembarking at an olive-coloured beach, we’ re welcomed by sea lions with gleaming bodies and faces poised towards the sun. A few steps