Visiting the Galapagos will make you stop using plastic

I tried to edit it out of my memory, but it was still there. I was snorkeling in the Galapagos and had just seen a starfish so beautiful that it made me cry.

I was lost in the wonder of the underwater world. My eyes followed a fish across the sea floor and there – pulsating like a jellyfish – was the wrapper from a single slice of cheese.

Here, as far as away as you can be, where lava has pushed its way out of the earth to form islands and life has found a way to thrive in this barren, rocky place, the world’s trash washes to shore.

Out here, in this laboratory, in this experiment to see what happens when humans don’t interfere, it’s hard to ignore the shadow we still cast.

Each night on the National Geographic Endeavor II, naturalists give a talk to travelers about oceanography or geology. It deepened our love for the place, as we slowly came to understand it.

One night, we watched plankton collected that afternoon from the sea through a microscope. The meeting of warm and cold currents make this a perfect nursery for plankton to live. Tiny little creatures of all shapes and sizes – creatures in constant motion, feeling their way with antenna, one that looks like a clear, miniature lobster. Yes, I learned, plankton have eyes.

They are the foundation of the food chain, feeding the humpback whales that throw themselves out of the water in the early morning as the sun comes up between Isabela and Fernandina islands.

Just as we had fallen in love with all of it, a naturalist showed us plastic. He clicked through slide after slide of research. We buy 1 million plastic water bottles a minute. Marine life are choking on our plastics, drinking in the microscopic remnants of our clothes and water bottles and bags. And then we eat the fish. ?

If you leave the Galapagos and still want to buy a single use plastic bottle, you weren’t paying attention.

Eliminating plastics is a key piece of the ethos of National Geographic- Lindblad Expeditions .

Company founder Sven Lindblad said, “I can’t sit idly and watch humans pour plastic into the ocean and destroy marine life and ecosystems that so many people depend upon for livelihoods and sustenance. I have to act. And I’m using my business to do so. … When we asked one supplier to remove the plastic encasing each individual item they sold us, they said it wasn’t possible. We suggested we take our business elsewhere, and suddenly they found a solution.”

There’s a single-use plastic ban on Lindblad boats. Garbage bags are compostable and dissolve in water; passengers receive stainless steel bottles for filtered water when you come on board.

It’s also part of the ethos of the towns on the Galapagos Islands. Santa Cruz Island has a ban on single-use plastics.

When the naturalists said, “I moved here because I fell in love with the Galapagos,” I was confused. How do you move to the empty Galapagos? Do you build a lean-to among the marine iguana? That is how little I understood about the islands before I went.

I was pleasantly surprised to walk the streets of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, population 12,696.

A man pushed his snowcone cart up a hill and pushed it against the curb so it wouldn’t roll. He turned a metal wheel to shave ice into a cup and covered it with colored syrup and then a layer of condensed milk. Two women paid for the flavored ice and sat on a bench to enjoy it.

People flagged down white trucks that operate as taxis, ideal for throwing a bicycles, groceries and supplies in the back for the drive to the farms of the highlands.

This island is home to the Charles Darwin Research Station, whose work has helped restore endangered species like the giant tortoise.

I sat on the pier and looked out on the screensaver view of white sand and turquoise water. A breeze kept the head of a palm tree in constant motion. The bay was full of boats – ships like ours with a host of tourists, sailboats and a line of yellow water taxis.

A man emerged from one of the sailboats and tossed what was left in his coffee cup overboard. He was barefoot and wearing a loose black beanie for the bit of morning chill still in the air. He busied himself with the puttering work of tightening stanchions, checking lines and looking out to sea.

A black marine iguana sat near me, first looking out on the scene and then looking up at me. It kept moving closer with a cat curiosity. Could an iguana want affection? Or do people feed it?

A bright red crab pulled itself out of the water below onto the black lava rocks. A mural on the wall showed a child swimming underwater with turtles and fish. Its eyes were large as it took in the beauty and noticed all the plastics in the water – bottles and wrappers.

Members of our boat crew were not far away participating in a six-week program to clean beaches of litter. That day, they collected 40 pounds of plastic trash.

Want to go?

Post and Courier Travel has partnered with National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions to take people to the Galapagos in September 2025. Learn more:?https://www.postandcourier.com/travel/galapagos/exploring-galapagos-one-week-sailing-the-islands/article_cd946128-7a1c-11ef-a701-83a71efe19a4.html