Blogs & Ecology

Photos by Brian Merchant

All photos by yours truly

Photo by Pete Oxford

The Trouble with Water in the Galapagos

Please Use Only as Much Water as You Need. Conserve Water.

In the Galapagos, slogans like these are ubiquitous in tourist-heavy zones—the messages these appear on door-hangers in hotels, introductory speeches on cruise ships, and travel pamphlets all over the islands.

And though the plea is inserted into lightly worded tourist literature, the problem with water is among the most severe and urgent issues facing the Galapagos Islands.

US teachers in the Galapagos classroom. Photo by Pete Oxford

The Galapagos Islands are undoubtedly one of the most unique ecological sites in the world—Darwin could've told you that. And he did. But the legacy he began in biological education has found a strange place in the land that first inspired him.

Photo by Pete Oxford

San Cristobal transforms from one of the most arid, barren-looking tropical islands you could imagine to a verdant tropical beauty in about half an hour. We're driving on the muddy roads through the Galapagos' capitol island en route to its highlands, and it seems a couple hundred meters of elevation has made a world of difference. Exotic-looking miconia plants and ferns cover the hillsides we pass, thorny blackberry limbs whip at the bus windows, and we drive by a freshwater lagoon draped in dark red algae.

Photo by Pete Oxford

The Galapagos Islands first really became the Galapagos Islands for most of us sometime around 6 o'clock at night. About then, I was lying on the beach a foot or two away from a female sea lion who just stared in my direction, apparently bored, and blinked her big brown eyes at me.

Photo courtesy of Planet Ware

30 of the top teachers in the US are making a trek from the Florida Everglades to the Galapagos Islands in order to engage a series of global conservation issues in the Toyota International Teacher Program. I'm traveling alongside the educators to report on the findings and experiences that unfold on the road to Galapagos.

Photo by Susan Cullumber>