Lava Tubes, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos

Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the Galapagos archipelago. It is the location of the small town of Puerto Ayora.

As with all the island of The Galapagos, Santa Cruz is volcanic. The Galapagos islands are the surface expression of a mantle "hot spot". In about the middle of the island, at the topographic high, sits the Royal Palm Hotel. The lava tubes are accessed through a window a couple hundred meters from the cabanas. Hard hats and good shoes are required as the path through the tubes is rudimentary at best. Light bulbs are strung from wires along most of the rock strewn path, but in some places, all you have is your flashlight to guide you.

In the darker recesses various types of coralline algae spread itself across the surface.

San Cristobal was also tremendous with a short hike up to one of the island's calderas (shown above), and a visit to the tortoise research station and nearby beach.

Lunch time for a turtle (Yes, it is okay to call them turtles)

A cactus "tree" unique to The Galapagos

Napping on the beach

The World Heritage recognized Galapagos Islands are well worth the time and effort to get there. When you go, try to stay onshore and not on a mainland owned vessel. Support the local businesses. 

Why were we there?

Recognized as a knowledgeable and influential voice in energy sustainability strategy, we were invited to The Galapagos to participate in a week long summit that dealt with sustainability in fragile environs. We participated and presented a poster on decision management in energy sustainability

The final day of the summit was a field day which involved a frightening small boat excursion between San Cristobal and Santa Cruz. The open sea between the islands was windy with 3-4m waves cutting obliquely across our path from the rear.

A dozen of us ringed the edge of the aft seating area, being doused by sea water every few seconds. The immense walls of water blocked our view of the horizon until we were perched on the crest awaiting our plummet back into the trough. Normally about a 40 minutes journey, our roller coaster lasted for over two hours.

There are two wind farms in The Galapagos. The rest of their energy is produced by up to four diesel generators. One generator always has to be operating in order to sync the flow from the wind farm. The three generators shown above constitute the wind farm on San Cristobal.

The turbine shown below is next to the airport  on the very small island of Baltra. Electricity from this installation is sent via submarine and buried cable to Puerto Ayora.

Now a brief story of decision making gone very wrong. The Ecuadorian government had mandated the switch away from natural gas, which left The Galapagos struggling to find reliable, environmentally friendly (or at least less impacting) energy source. Several years ago a fuel tanker ran aground at the mouth of the San Cristobal Island harbour sending environmentalists into fits of hydrocarbon recrimination.

They proceeded to lobby the government to plant biofuel capable crops along fences and walls across the country citing extensive new jobs and sustainable economy. Unfortunately, they were correct. Their plan would create a large number of jobs... for two weeks a year. The biofuel would provide the Galapagos the necessary fuel supply and it would only take 27 mainland workers to harvest and process enough product to provide the energy needs of one average Galapagos resident.

Furthermore, tests revealed that while a hydrocarbon spill causes damage, there are organisms that deal with hydrocarbons. Not so with biofuel. A spill of biofuel would completely devastate the ecosystem.  

The islands are approximately 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, too far for a natural gas pipeline. But fine for CNG vessels. Sadly, the biofuel lobbyists in attendance disputed the existence of this type of vessel.