Galápagos Finches, Giant Tortoises, and Prince Philip

An excerpt from Peter Alden's memoir: My Wild Life, Chapter 7

Nearly every eco traveler has the Galápagos Islands on his or her top-ten bucket list, and for good reasons. Located 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, the archipelago is home to iconic species like giant tortoises, marine iguanas, Blue-footed Boobies, and Darwin’s finches, all living in habitats that are remarkably untouched by human development.

What makes the Galápagos especially appealing is how fearless and approachable the animals are, allowing for up-close, respectful encounters both on land and underwater.

One of the key pioneers to the Galápagos was the man who would later become my boss, Lars-Eric Lindblad. A Swedish-American travel entrepreneur, Lindblad organized the first expedition cruise of tourists to the Galápagos aboard the Lindblad Explorer. Recognizing the need for responsible tourism, he partnered with scientists and local authorities to ensure that visits supported conservation efforts. This approach laid the foundation for the Galápagos’ model of regulated, small-scale ecotourism, which has since been adopted globally. The establishment of Galápagos National Park (1959) and the Charles Darwin Research Station (1964) were also critical milestones in protecting the islands while allowing for educational and scientific tourism.

By the mid-1970s, the concept of eco-travel was beginning to evolve as environmentalism emerged as a global concern. As issues like deforestation, wildlife extinction, and pollution gained public attention, people began seeking more sustainable ways to interact with nature. This shift coincided with increased global travel due to rising incomes and accessible air travel, especially to remote or developing regions.

Mass Audubon’s strong reputation as a leader in conservation-based travel often served as a model for other nature and nonprofit organizations. Earthwatch Institute, the Sierra Club, and International Expeditions had started. Soon natural history museums and college alumni programs would offer programs as a way of building loyalty with their communities and furthering their missions. We were happy to support this movement. I remember advising an eager graduate student at Harvard, Victor Emanuel, about how to organize trips to support his lifelong passion for birds. He soon started his company, Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT), now widely considered to be one of the most respected and established birding and nature tour companies globally.

Mass Audubon’s travel program was growing rapidly, thanks to our team, which included not only Richard Forster and Chris Leahy from my early days there, but also John Kricher, David Clapp, and Jim Lane. In 1977, I led our first Mass Audubon trip to the Galápagos with Betsy Thomas. In the early days of travel to the Galápagos, there was only one boat available for trips, called the Iguana. We worked through Holbrook Travel and their founder, Giovanna Holbrook, who accompanied our maiden voyage.

First-time visitors to the Galápagos want to see the giant tortoises that Darwin made famous. They almost became extinct because of early whalers hunting them down and packing them onto their whaling ships. Tortoises can go for months without food or water, so the whalers could keep them alive at minimal cost and then slaughter them as needed for food. Visitors can now see the giant tortoises in the Galápagos in several places. The Santa Cruz highlands and Alcedo Volcano on Isabela have the largest populations.

Visitors also see the finches and mockingbirds that inspired so much of Darwin’s work on evolution. Darwin very seldom went ashore, due to his health problems, and it’s amazing to think about all that he missed as a result. Had he gone ashore, he might have seen a Woodpecker Finch—famous because it uses tools, breaking short twigs into correct lengths and using them to spear and extract grubs from wood. This ingenuity, the intentional use of something inanimate to aid in the hunting process, is significant.

Flightless Cormorant

Darwin also never saw the Flightless Cormorant, endemic to the Galápagos, that lives only on Fernandina and Isabela Islands. Because this bird is able to find nourishment twelve months a year on the rocky coastline, it has lost the ability to fly with its pathetic tiny wings, and instead has developed very strong feet muscles that allow it to swim underwater with great speed, thereby capturing more fish. This example of evolution would have made quite an impression on Darwin had he ever witnessed it.

The Galápagos bird life is astounding, and the animals are all fearless because they have no predators: no bears, no foxes, no wolves. You can walk right up to a snake, an albatross, or a Blue-footed Booby in her nest, and they won’t show any fear. You can lie on one of the warm-water beaches on the eastern islands and a Galápagos sea lion will wander over and lie down next to you. That’s the kind of thing you don’t think about until you experience it. Communing with the wildlife as if you are all on equal terms is a unique feeling, and there are very few places in the world to experience it. East Africa, the Galápagos, and Antarctica are just about the only ones left.

Travelers cruising to the Galápagos Islands have to make a choice about the size of their boat and the length of the cruise. There are now roughly seventy vessels offering expedition cruises in the Galápagos Islands, varying in size and amenities. I’ve seen boats ranging from enlarged cabin cruisers that sleep ten to luxury ships for 100. Only once have I been on a cruise ship with a capacity larger than 100 in this region. The one time I visited this region on a cruise ship of 400, we weren’t allowed to do land excursions at all, only look at the land from the water, so we wouldn’t overwhelm the wildlife.

Our captain made a huge gaffe that resulted in his ship being the last one of that size to be allowed near the Galápagos Islands. Someone on the deck of our ship pumped his fist in the air the way you do to get a truck driver to blow his horn. We were beside a tall rock with many cliffside nesting seabirds. Amused, our captain decided to blast the ship’s horn. The national park guards were horrified. As the horn sounded, it set off an explosion of baby birds and eggs tumbling down the cliffside. No ship of that size was ever allowed back.

On smaller boats, the passengers were rotated ashore. On one such visit in 1988, I noticed that the Britannia, which was the royal yacht of the U.K. and was often used by Prince Philip, was anchored near us. My book, Finding Birds Around the World, had recently been published. Knowing that Prince Philip was a co-president of the World Wildlife Fund, I arranged to meet him during his visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station. There I presented him with a copy of my book, and when I arrived back home a few weeks later, I found a thank-you note written on official House of Windsor stationery.

Prince Philip visited the Galapagos Islands three times, in 1964, 1971 and in 1988 (photo: Royal Post).

From 1968 into the early 1980s, I worked at Mass Audubon on our worldwide travel program, focusing primarily on birding on six continents. While I loved my job, and although in recent years I had started to supplement my income with private trips, it was still hard to get by while counting mainly on my Mass Audubon salary. I began to dream of working for a luxury adventure travel company—and the company I wanted to work for was Lindblad Travel, founded by the visionary and pioneering Lars-Eric Lindblad. For years I followed their ads in nature and travel magazines about wing safaris in Africa and the first small expedition ship to open up cruises to Antarctica, the Galápagos, the Seychelles, and the South Pacific. Guest lectures featured major American, Canadian, and British artists, authors, and experts I knew or knew of.

In November 1982 I decided to drive to Westport, Connecticut, to apply for a position at the headquarters of Lindblad Travel. My book, Finding Birds Around the World, had been published recently in the U.S. and the U.K. I had an eight-page interview in Birding magazine. My fifteen years with Mass Audubon were an industry standard with a broad collection of tours worldwide, but I was ready to move on.

Upon arrival in Westport, I was taken up to meet Mr. Lindblad. Fortunately, he had purchased my Finding Birds book in Europe and knew of me through his close friend Roger Tory Peterson. He called Roger, whom I’d gotten to know well by this time, partly due to my role enhancing his Mexican bird guide. Lars quizzed me on many topics and places. We had a good personal connection, and I was offered a job on the spot. I moved to Westport shortly thereafter to develop an array of new bird-focused land tours to Alaska (with Roger as my tent mate), New Guinea, Senegal and Gambia, Brazil and Argentina. Later, I was shifted to developing and lecturing on West Africa, Galápagos, and Antarctic cruises.

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