There is literally no place like this on Earth.

It's the most well preserved island ecosystem and the largest marine sanctuary on the entire planet.

Welcome, everybody, to the Galapagos.

In this episode, I'll be cruising some of the south easterly islands to learn about the unique wildlife in this protected island ecosystem.

I'll be snorkeling, scuba diving, and wandering on land with a naturalist guide where I'll be face to face with sea lions, sharks, birds, and even Christmas-colored iguanas.

I'm Alice Ford and we're back in Northern Norway.

This is the Garden Island, Kauai, Hawaii.

As you guys can see, it is absolutely beautiful down here.

The views are just already stunning.

We are on our way to Antarctica.

So right now we're having a traditional tea here.

Wow.

The Galapagos Islands are home to some of the most extraordinary wildlife on the planet, where species have evolved in isolation to create a one of a kind ecosystem.

Here you can encounter the only swimming lizard in the world, the marine iguana.

You can watch as comical, blue footed boobies put on their famous courtship dance and keep an eye out for the majestic waved albatross.

There's even chances to spot the Galapagos penguin.

Whale sharks, orcas, and 20 plus species of whales.

I'm starting this trip up on the island of San Cristobal, which is about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, and a 2.5 hour flight from Quito.

Now, let me start off by saying that coming to the Galapagos is expensive.

There are a couple of ways to get here, You can island hop by ferry, which is the most cost effective.

Or you can join a tourist cruise or a liveaboard if you're very serious about scuba diving.

Because I wanted to see a lot.

I'm actually going to be joining a tourist cruise and checking out some of the south eastern islands here in the Galapagos.

1959, the Galapagos became Ecuador's first national park, and in 1978 it became a World Heritage Site.

But it was made famous well before that by this guy, Charles Darwin, and his theory of evolution.

He came here in the 1830s documenting sea lions and tortoises and all kinds of birds, and his work still continues to this day.

In 1835, a young naturalist named Charles Darwin arrived in the Galapagos Islands aboard the HMS Beagle, a journey that would forever change the course of science.

During his brief stay, Darwin was struck by the unique species on the islands, particularly the variations in finches, mockingbirds and tortoises from one island to the next.

The observations led him to question how species adapted and evolved over time, ultimately forming the foundation of his groundbreaking theory of natural selection.

The Galapagos provided Darwin with a living laboratory, where the isolation of the islands allowed for species to evolve independently, adapting to the specific conditions of their environments.

His work in the Galapagos remains one of the most significant scientific contributions to our understanding of life on Earth, cementing the islands as a symbol of evolution and biodiversity.

Darwin certainly wasn't the first to visit the Galapagos.

It had already been used and abused for centuries, bringing irreversible changes to this fragile ecosystem from the 17th to the 19th century.

Whalers, pirates and early settlers hunted many species to near extinction.

Sperm whales were diminished in the waters, and giant tortoises, once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, were slaughtered for their meat, while invasive species like rats, dogs, and goats introduced by humans wreaked havoc on native bird populations and habitats.

Iconic species like the Galapagos tortoise and several species of birds teetered on the brink of extinction.

The carelessness of these early settlers nearly erased what Charles Darwin later recognized as one of the most extraordinary places for the study of evolution.

The damage done by humans still lingers today, though dedicated conservation efforts have helped many species make a slow but hopeful recovery.

This island is an important piece of Darwin's history, because it was the first island where Darwin actually came ashore in 1835.

Today it's home to a university and an institute that continue conservation research on many species and one animal you're sure to see a lot of are sea lions.

Before coming to the Galapagos.

I read a lot of blogs and they said the sea lions were literally everywhere.

I didn't necessarily believe them until I saw this.

My hotel is just across this boardwalk from the main town here, so every time I want to go to town to a nearby restaurant or to head out on a dive boat, I have to go through this obstacle course of sea lions.

Sea lions have their babies in winter and it's about March right now.

So most of the babies here are about 3 to 4 months old.

This guy looks a little bit younger, and most of them are here on the beach in the night, are with their mothers who come in from the oceans, and then they're able to feed on them, drink their milk, which they do for about the first year of life as well.

Now there are some little babies that you see by themselves.

I don't know if their mothers are still alive or they're just out to sea, but you can definitely observe them here on the beaches.

This time of year is not only nesting season for sea turtles, but iguanas too.

And the path I'm taking right now takes me to a beach where we're going to see a lot of them.

It's amazing how well these iguanas camouflage themselves.

I thought this guy was a big rock and almost stepped on him.

These iguanas are totally unique because they're actually marine iguanas, the only lizards on Earth that spend time in the ocean.

And here in the Galapagos Islands, they have adapted to an island lifestyle populations across the islands, have been isolated from each other for so long that each island has its own subspecies.

Charles Darwin famously described marine iguanas as the most disgusting, clumsy lizards and imps of darkness during his 1835 voyage.

Yet their evolutionary adaptations are extraordinary.

These unique reptiles have developed sharp teeth, long claws and streamlined tails to feed on algae and navigate the rocky ocean floors.

Their blood contains a special pigment that stores more oxygen for deep dives, while their dark skin absorbs sunlight to keep them warm in the cold Galapagos waters.

Additionally, marine iguanas possess nasal glands that expel salt, making them perfectly suited for life in the sea.

There's one species I have always wanted to scuba dive with, and that's hammerhead sharks.

It happens to be the season right now, so today I'm heading out on a scuba diving boat to see if we can spot some.

I am going to dive at a place called Kicker Rock, a massive remnant of a vertical, tuff cone formation that rises 500ft out of the sea.

And it's one of the premier places to see sea turtles, rays and sharks.

Now, diving in the Galapagos is not for the inexperienced.

There are extremely strong currents which make diving here pretty challenging, especially if you don't have a lot of dives under your belt.

But it's these deep currents that make us such a wildly diverse place for marine life.

The islands actually sit at the confluence of three deep ocean currents.

These bring with them nutrient rich water The nutrients feed plankton and plants, and the whole ecosystem grows from there.

And this is why, depending on the time of year, you can see everything from whale sharks and sea lions to penguins in the waters of the Galapagos.

Scuba diving here was epic.

There were huge balls of fish which hung out in the deeps, and every now and then a sea lion would rock it down from the surface to grab a snack.

Sharks lurked in the deeper waters away from the reef, and on my first dive, we got to see several reef sharks.

But dive number two was spectacular, offering a rare glimpse of hammerheads swimming in large groups.

Now, hammerheads can often be hard to spot while diving, as they can feel the electromagnetic pulse in our bodies and are extremely shy.

This was certainly the dive of a lifetime, and one I will not soon forget.

Welcome aboard the Corals One.

This is my home for the next couple of days.

There are a ton of different sizes of ships.

When you're coming into the Galapagos.

I chose this one, which at the max is about 30 people.

But this week we're going to be just nine.

My first day on board, we headed down the coastline on San Cristobal to a volcanic area called Cerro Brujo, which is an old extinct cone of a shield volcano by sea.

We were able to take the dinghy out to admire some of the caves and unique volcanic features.

It's in a state of constant change.

These tall, rocky cliffs have been eroding by water and rain for thousands of years.

Now, the Galapagos were formed by shield volcanoes and continue to be shaped by active volcanoes to this day.

the landscape is rugged and on some islands almost devoid of plants, dotted with volcanic craters and large rocks, providing little shelter from the hot equatorial heat.

one of the things about being here in the Galapagos that is so special is that because of the regulation, because of the control of how many people can be in one place at a time, if you are on a ship, whether that be a small ship cruise or even a dive boat, you will be at the beaches and the dive spots, snorkeling spots, almost completely alone.

There are just about 25 of us out here today from three different ships.

When I was out here the other day on my dive boat, it was the same with about less than 15 people.

And that's what you can expect.

So you have these beautiful, pristine places, almost always entirely to yourself.

One of the things that makes the Galapagos so unique is the large amount of ocean that is part of the protected area, with more than 133,000 square hectares.

So snorkeling here is a must.

And one of my favorite things at each and every location.

The Galapagos harbors four of the five sea turtle species that reside in the eastern tropical Pacific.

The most abundant is the green sea turtle, and this is the first of many.

Wow I am so surprised to be greeted by all this desert like vegetation.

This could not be more different than the mainland of Ecuador.

In fact, the majority of this archipelago's land area is covered by the brown and gray vegetation often found in deserts.

The Galapagos Islands are situated in an area called the Pacific Dry Belt, and in an average year, only the highest altitudes of the larger islands receive enough rainfall to support tropical plant life.

Right now, we're hiking to one of the only places in the Galapagos, so you can see every kind of booby.

the birds.

Red footed, blue footed.

And Nazca boobies.

Like many of the species here in the Galapagos, 80% of the birds which includes these three species of boobies are endemic, meaning they aren't found anywhere else on Earth.

And many of the birds I'm seeing right now are in the midst of nesting or courting a mate.

While some are busy bringing fish home for the newly hatched fur babies.

To tell the species apart, just look at their feet, which are brightly colored and either blue, red or black.

The name boobies was possibly based on the Spanish slang bobo, aka foolish or slow, as they used to land on ships where they were easily caught and eaten by sailors.

One of the really special things here in the Galapagos is that the animals, because they have never had natural predators, and we've done a pretty good job, minus the 1800s, of, keeping most of the predators out so that the animals, they're not afraid.

It gives us the perfect opportunity to not only study them, but to see them.

Espanola is one of the oldest islands in the chain.

It's uninhabited to protect the wildlife, and there are several endemic species here.

One of those is the Christmas iguana, and I think you can tell how it got its name.

These guys are a subspecies of the marine iguana, and only during mating season will the male iguanas have this wonderful display of green and red.

So where are all those lucky ladies?

This island is also a gigantic bird colony where you can spot small birds like mockingbirds and larger birds like albatross and blue footed boobies.

Most numerous are the Nazca boobies, which are white and black They number in the thousands, and they're almost everywhere I look.

Many with hungry chicks waiting for first or maybe even second lunch The tortoises of Espanola stand as a remarkable conservation triumph in the Galapagos too, once dwindling to just 14 individuals in the 1960s due to whalers habitat destruction and invasive goats.

These tortoises were removed and placed in a breeding program on the island of Santa Cruz.

Today, around 50 to 60 Espanola tortoises are born each year, with nearly 1500 young successfully repatriated and breeding on the island since 1990.

Now efforts to restore their habitat continue, with goats eradicated and cactus forest being rehabilitated.

The islands will once again be the way nature intended.

The southern side of the island features a dramatic natural spectacle a lava fissure where ocean waves crash in creating a blowhole that shoots water nearly 30m into the air at high tide.

Back in the water.

Today was all about the sea lions.

And there's no where on earth.

I've swum with sea lions that were as playful or curious as the ones here.

They often come right up to my camera for a quick taste and to get a closer look.

While, these youngsters are certainly cute.

The male sea lions can weigh 900 pounds and are definitely not to be messed with.

Now these sea lions are also an endemic species, usually slightly smaller in size in their sea lion cousins.

They live about 15 to 25 years, can hold their breath for 20 minutes, and dive down to 600ft, while there are somewhere around 50,000 of these sea lions in the Galapagos, they are considered threatened by the IUCN because they live nowhere else on Earth.

Next stop, the island of Floreana located in the far south.

Floreana Island is steeped in the most fascinating human history.

It was home to the first post office in 1793.

The first resident, an Irishman named Patrick Watkins, and the first colonists in 1832.

From its brief stint as a penal colony to a failed Norwegian fish canning plant in the 1920s.

Floreana attracted eccentric settlers during the 1800s and even the 1900s.

Many different settler groups tried to come and live here, from the Norwegians to the Americans to the famous Baroness and her two lovers.

Each tale ended in either disaster or death, or the people returning back to their native lands.

one of the most famous things on this island is actually manmade.

The old post office that Captain Cook put here back in 1793, it's not the original anymore, but it's still tradition to come and bring your postcards here and look in the barrel to see if any of the old ones are to places in your neighborhood that you can take out and hand-deliver yourself.

Signed, sealed.

And hopefully one day delivered.

One of the things I really wanted to see on this island were the pink flamingos.

They're pretty far off in the distance here, but really excited about.

We got to see a few.

Floreana was also once home to a thriving tortoise population.

That population went extinct after almost 100 years of settlers from all over the world coming and killing the tortoises, as well as the endemic mockingbird that used to live on this island.

Sadly, Floreana has been experiencing local extinctions almost since Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos.

Many of those caused by invasive predators like cats and rats that were accidentally introduced to the island by humans.

while, this island remains one of the least rewilded of the chain.

Many NGOs are currently devising plans to bring these long extinct species back.

Okay, this might be my favorite beach so far.

There are stingrays out here.

Tons of tortoises.

Little baby sharks.

So cool.

Back under the sea.

For the last time.

The Galapagos waters never cease to amaze and delight.

Within one of the marine volcanic craters.

The snorkeling is incredible.

Deep rock walls providing ample places for fish, turtle and sea lion to find protection, food and shade.

The yellowtail sturgeon fish are one of my favorites to follow, as they swim in large groups in the shallow waters.

Swimming in the largest numbers, however, are the Pacific Creole fish, which make up huge dark walls of fish, blocking out almost all the light, and they're a favorite snack of the bluefooted boobies.

I also spot several sharks, and one is the unique Galapagos shark, one of the largest predators in the Galapagos waters.

I spot sea cucumbers on the bottom, once almost extinct here in the Galapagos, but it's the sea turtles riding the currents with me that I am most enamored with.

With ample foraging grounds in these healthy reefs, the turtles are numerous.

I head back to the surface for some sunshine and rainbows.

And one last tour near the islands edge, where I spot not only a fur seal, but two Magellanic penguins, probably having swum all the way from Patagonia.

Rounding out my list of incredible wildlife sightings on this trip.

It's true what they say.

Depending on the season, you can see just about any marine wildlife migrating through the waters here and the Galapagos.

This might be one of the best office locations I've ever had.

This has been such an adventure exploring the Galapagos.

I've seen more wildlife this last week than I've seen on almost any trip combined, from iguanas and sharks, to tortoises and sea lions.

So many sea lions.

I want to give a special thank you to the President of Ecuador and this country in general.

It's been just mind blowing to see such a country protecting nature and the way that they do.

Earlier this year, the president of Ecuador expanded the marine protected area here, connecting it with Costa Rica to form the largest superhighway for marine life in the entire world.

It's larger than the state of Maryland and protects all kinds of animals depending on the time of year you come here and the islands you visit, you can swim with whale sharks, hammerheads, tortoises, manta rays, and a whole variety of wildlife.

And that doesn't even count the land animals.

So I hope you guys have enjoyed it.

Getting a little taste of the Galapagos.

And I will see you on the next adventure.

As always, I'm Alice Ford.

Never stop exploring.