Floreana, Galapagos

Floreana has the longest tradition of human habitation on the Galapagos Islands. Its first resident was an Irishman named Patrick Watkins, a sailor who was marooned here in 1807. It’s unclear from the historical record if Watkins was marooned as a punishment or left his ship voluntarily, but he was stuck here alone for two years. He built a little shack near Puerto Velasco Ibarra, growing potatoes and yams, which he traded with passing sailors for rum. He later escaped to the mainland after getting a group of five visiting sailors drunk on his supply, stealing one of their small boats, and then pressing the hungover men into his service the next morning. All of the sailors died, but Watkins made it to Ecuador.

Watkins' hut is said to have been built a few kilometres outside Puerto Velasco Ibarra, and a few kilometres north of the site is Post Office Bay. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, this bay was home to the island’s only ‘post office’ (actually a large wooden barrel where visiting sailors would deposit letters). The idea was that those passing by would check the contents of the barrel for any letters addressed to locations on their route and would then deposit those letters in a postbox when they came ashore. This must have been a great comfort to sailors on long, perilous journeys, as well as their families at home.

Some time after this first light touch of human infrastructure, the first Ecuadorian settlers in the Galapagos made their homes here. These were criminals sent to this relatively barren island as punishment, but the penal colony was soon abandoned when it became too difficult to supply the prisoners with fresh water.

The brackish water of the island's coastline may not be beneficial for the establishment of human habitation, but for another group of the island’s residents, it’s perfect. As I sit next to a lagoon near Post Office Bay, I watch a great flock of bright pink American flamingos, standing elegantly on one foot like expert yogis, dipping their long beaks into the water in search of shrimp. Their colouring is truly brilliant, and thanks to the carotenoid pigments in the crustaceans they eat here, these flamingos support the brightest pink feathers of all the flamingo family. 

The failure of the Ecuadorean colony and the success of the flamingoes bring my thoughts back to evolution. For me (or an Ecuadorean convict), the environment here is hostile, and that brackish water is poison; take away my clothes, my water bottle and my phone, and I wouldn’t last two days. But for the flamingoes, with their salt-filtering eye glands that allow them to drink saltwater, the sieve-like organs in their curved beaks that allow them to filter out edible crustaceans from the mud, and their long, scaly legs, which protect them from the corrosive effects of salt and other minerals in the water, this is a paradise. Over billions of years, evolution has moulded them to thrive here in this most unforgiving environment, making possible the fabulous flamingo flock of Floreana.