Home to discreet protectors and amiable profiteers
Isabela, like the other islands of the archipelago, was discovered by the Spaniards by chance in 1535, when the bishop of Panama's boat deviated from its course on its way to Peru! At the time of their exploration, the islands were uninhabited and no settlement had been established by the Spanish. It was during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries that they became a place of anchorage and provisioning (fresh water, fish and turtle meat) for pirates and buccaneers. One particularly well-protected bay on Isabela is still known today as "Pirate Cove".
In the XIXth century, English and North American ships, as well as whalers, often docked on these islands. In 1832, the archipelago officially became part of the territory of Ecuador. A century later, four of the only inhabited islands were still occupied by merely a thousand settlers (fishermen and/or farmers).
[1] Islas de los Galápagos" historically meant "islands of sea turtles", whose shell is compared to a horse's saddle; galloping has the same etymology as "galápago"
Carmen Angermeyer offers a vivid account of the life of settlers at that time [1]. After arriving from Europe in 1934 at the age of six with her Franco-German parents, who foresaw a new war and were looking for a peaceful place to live, she spent the rest of her life on the island of Santa Cruz. Upon their arrival, a dozen small houses were set around a bay. Her mother was responsible for her education. The first months were difficult.
For food they fished, hunted wild pigs and raised small livestock. Then came the purchase of fertile land on a hill to grow vegetables and fruit (avocado, papaya, citrus, banana) and plots of maize, manioc, sweet potatoes and melons, and in three years they set up a small productive farm -granja-. Each newcomer had the right to choose, with the agreement of their neighbours, a 20-hectare plot of land to be cleared, as well as an unoccupied site on the shore to build their cottage.
Carmen Angermeyer married on the spot, had three children and took charge of their schooling, given the lack of educational establishments. She writes that her parents never regretted their decision and that she considers having had a very happy life, in close contact with nature.
[1] Pete Oxford & Renée Bish, Ecuador, ed. Dinediciones, p. 159 “Mi vida en Galápagos” por C. Angermeyer
Sunday at the beach of Puerto Villamil (2014)
Over the last 70 years, Isabela's population has grown only slightly and remains sparsely populated (from 300 in 1950 to 850 in 1990 and 2,500 in 2020), with an extremely low density, given its vast surface area (4,600 km2).
In 2020, the population of farmers and stockbreeders settled on the slopes of the Sierra Negra volcano, concentrated for the most part in the hamlet of Santo Tomas, can be estimated at some 350 rural dwellers, compared with 2,150 in the urban area of Puerto Villamil.
The latter are mainly active in tourism (National Park agents, private transport offices and services, guides and diving equipment hire), construction handicrafts, commerce, catering and the small hotel trade, civil service (security, health, basic education) and research (Darwin Foundation).
My greatest wish: that Isabela, an incomparable place of wonder, retains its admirable biodiversity, its modesty and its discreet hospitality.
The situation has changed considerably. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INEC), there were 33,000 inhabitants in the Galapagos in 2020, 25 times more than in 1950, with more than half of them concentrated on the island of Santa Cruz, which has become a hub for tourism. The population of the 4 inhabited islands doubled between 1990 and 2000, due to the immigration of Ecuadorians from the mainland and the explosion in the number of organised tourism services.
For 2019, 270,000 visitors, 67% of them foreign, have been registered by the National Park, the official regime under which the Galapagos Islands have been placed since 1959. Almost all tourists arriving by plane at the only international airport take a cruise ship tour of several sites and islands.
The number of cruise ships permitted is the subject of a constant and divisive national debate. UNESCO declared the islands a "National Heritage of Mankind" as early as 1978, and six years later a "Biosphere Reserve", which greatly increased international interest in the archipelago, considered to be one of the planet's major ecological reserves.
Return of tourists left for the day, on standby
of their cruise ship - Puerto Villamil- 2014
Villamil airport - 2014
Its simplicity helps to the conservation of the island
Sources
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Pierre Constant – Archipel des Galapagos – 300p. - éd. 1994
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Wikipedia – Historia de las islas Galápagos
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INEC – Gente en Galapagos - 2000
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L. Coloma & S. Ron – Ecuador megadiverso – Pontifica Universidad católica Ecuador – 2001
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Guía de Parques Nacionales del Ecuador – INEFAN – Quito, 1998
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P. Oxford & R. Bish – Ecuador – Dinediciones – 2008
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photos ©photophil between 2014 and 2018