I love this time of year. May and June in the Galapagos often tend to be my favorite months of the year. After all, we’ve been living under a merciless sun, with scorching heat, high humidity, and this time of year always brings good news – a gentle breeze, a change of winds, and heavenly clouds. In certain ways, it almost feels as if everybody wakes up from a lethargic state, and thus the fun begins!
It all started at Punta Vicente Roca over on Isabela Island. I first heard it from my fellow guides: apparently there had been very high, yet unrecorded, sightings of sunfish. I simply couldn’t believe it. Their stories told of dozens of them leaping out of the water.
Galapagos is well known as a must-visit destination for scuba divers.
Seasons in the Galapagos are quite easy to predict. “The Enchanted Islands” is what early seafarers used to call them, oftentimes describing them as islands that “appear and disappear…” And this is all because of the presence of the inversion layer. Warm, tropical equatorial air meets evaporating, cooler sub-Antarctic waters that reach the Galapagos Islands by means of the Humboldt Current. When you start seeing foggy mornings, it means that the change will happen at any moment. From December to May, the southeast trade winds weaken, letting the warmer northerly winds come in. These bring the rain, the heat, and the humidity, and things often “heat up” on land in terms of animal activity. From May all the way until December, a different Galapagos opens up with cooler air, cool waters, and lots of underwater nutrients. Marine life flourishes. Humpback whales begin popping up with their babies in tow, blue whales cruise through, and albatrosses begin to fly back out to sea.
A sesuvium red carpet is one of the features of South Plaza Island
Colors, both above land and underwater, end up being one of the most beautiful features during this time of changing seasons in Galapagos. Myriads of colorful fish will swarm around you when snorkeling. And we won’t deny that the water can be quite “invigorating” when you first jump in (which is why we recommend wearing a wetsuit, which you can rent aboard the Santa Cruz II if need be). After a few seconds of being the water, however, you simply and rather suddenly forget about the water temperature, especially when you start bumping into mindless sea turtles, free-diving through schools of blue-striped snappers or trying to catch up with penguins. On land, plants let their carotenoid pigments take over, and here and there it looks as if there were a red cushiony carpet all over the place. Towards the end of the day, Palo Santo trees that recently dropped their leaves are beginning to expose their greyish-white bark, turning into kaleidoscopes as they reflect the rays of sunlight that pour in at the end of the day; all of it in rainbow shades of pink, purple, and orange…
The lush green will soon arrive on the islands!