Criss-crossing the equator

This concludes Jim Anderson's account of his trip to the Galapagos Islands.

We traveled across the equator four times in our explorations of the Galapagos Islands.

Each island we visited opened another door to the unique geology and life of the Galapagos. We arrived at the north end of Isabela Island and walked among the marine iguanas. It was astounding. In some places it was almost impossible to see the black lava beneath them, they were so numerous.

Obtaining a close-up photo of marine iguanas can be accomplished without endangering either man or beast - all you have to do is bend over, point your camera in the right direction, and ask them to smile. In fact, you have to be very careful when walking on the trails to avoid stepping on them. (The iguanas don't follow the GNPS rules; they bask in the sun wherever they want.) And, if you get too close, they'll squirt salt water from their nostrils all over your camera.

Land iguanas are spectacular when they turn their yellow faces toward you, and the small lava lizards, the female with a bright-red dew-lap beneath its throat, are beautiful.

Once among the marine iguanas it was time to watch for the only indigenous raptor on the islands, the Galapagos hawk, a buteo that resembles our red-tailed hawk, but without the red tail. They prey on young iguanas, especially as they leave the beaches where they hatched from eggs, heading for the sea.

The wave albatross nests in the Galapagos, and I'll tell you, the first time you see one soaring by on those nine-foot wings, it's a sight to behold. They completely ignored our group walking on trails only a few feet from a courting or nesting area, and it's the same with all three indigenous boobies, blue-footed, red-footed, and nazca.

Swallow-tail gulls nest on the bare ground on several of the islands, and, even with nestlings nearby, ignored us as we slowly walked by. Their nighttime over-water foraging kept me up past my bedtime as I couldn't take my eyes off them as they skimmed the bow waves of the Tip Top IV, snatching up prey as we traveled between islands at night.

And speaking of sailing at night, when I did "climb into the rack," as it's said in Navy jargon, I slept like a log. The rolling and pitching movements of the vessel were so reminiscent of my time in the Navy when I served on a small wooden sub-chaser (PCS 1384). For me, it was like being rocked in my mother's bosom, but to a couple of other members of our group, who suffered with motion sickness, it was pure hell.

In addition to wanting to see and photograph the Galapagos snake, I was also interested in meeting a few of the 31 species of spiders William Beebe discovered on his voyage to the Galapagos in 1924. To that end, I found beautiful orb-weavers, (the Galapagos writing-spider, an argiopid), and a unique wolf spider with babies on her back, who was walking across the surface of a lagoon behind the historic village of Puerto Villamil, where we also spotted flamingos.

Galapagos Travel billed this trip as a "Natural History Workshop." After spending 10 days and nine nights roaming through Herman Melville's "Enchanted Isles," I can only say it was much more than that. It was, for me, the mother of all field trips!

Jim Hammond, a Sisters astronomer, was also on the Galapagos tour, and he has this to say: "The promise of seeing 25 percent of the sky not seen from our latitude, and some beautiful unfamiliar celestial objects, made the trip to the Galapagos Islands more than the earth-based nature tour that we were anticipating.

"The night sky to the south holds the beautiful constellation Crux (Southern Cross), with its four stars forming a kite shape."

On one dark night we were able to view the Big Dipper to the north and the Southern Cross above the southern horizon just by turning our heads.

"We had some hope of seeing the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy companion to our Milky Way. However, due to continued cloudiness, the best opportunity came on our last night - but only one truly imaginative gazer convinced himself that he saw the "cloud' just before he turned in."

While visiting the Galapagos Giant Tortoise nursery, Jim managed to get himself under an empty tortoise carapace for a clever photo, and his last statement summed up the Galapagos adventure for me and the other members of our group when he said, "What a great trip!"