Breaking the Cycle
With a goal to help and educate the people of the Galapagos, naturalist Ximena Córdova is a woman on a mission.
NEIL MCQUILLIAN
The Galápagos Islands are a mysterious, enigmatic destination, and even today it can be hard to believe they really exist. Flummoxed by the mists generated by the Humboldt Current, early seafarers would tell scary stories of bewitched islands that were there one minute then – poof – gone the next. They called them Las Islas Encantadas.
Yet the Galápagos really are out there, a Lost World-like archipelago sharing the sky with all of us right now. And not only is visiting the islands possible, around 25,000 people live on them – and one of them is Ximena Córdova.
“The incredible colour of the water is the first thing I notice when I wake up,” says Ximena, a naturalist who grew up among the mountains of mainland Ecuador but moved to the Galápagos over two decades ago. “I see creatures like the Galápagos marine iguana just sunbathing out the back of my house. I can sometimes see sharks and rays, or sea lions playing and fishing together. If I’m lucky, I’ll spot penguins from the breakfast table.”
Those marine iguanas are the only ocean going lizards on Earth, and the penguins are the only species found north of the equator. Oh, and the sea lions dive deeper than any other sea lion. Ximena truly has some of the world’s most remarkable animals for neighbours.
The first recorded visitor to the Galápagos was Tomás de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama, who drifted there while trying to reach Peru in 1535. He reported being surrounded by creatures “so silly that they do not know how to flee”.
The animals of the Galápagos had evolved with no fear of humans because there weren’t any. If Ximena wanted to, she could go right over and high-five those sea lions on the flipper or brush away the salt-crystal beard on an iguana.
But Ximena doesn’t want to. She has spent most of her life on the Galápagos as a naturalist guide and is passionately dedicated to the islands’ conservation.
“I’m 100 per cent Ecuadorian. I grew up in the Andes but went to the beach all the time, so I fell in love with the ocean at a very early age,” she says. “But in 1998 I got an offer to work at the Charles Darwin Research Station as a graphic designer and I jumped at the opportunity.”
However, 1998 was not a good year for the Galápagos. A major El Niño event proved catastrophic for the local sea life.
“Many marine species were dying. It was so difficult to see the creatures starving to death,” says Ximena. “At that point I didn’t understand that this was a natural event and, honestly, I thought that I’d killed myself by coming here. But I had to stay, I’d signed a contract, and by the time the year was out I was in love with the place.”
Ximena then made the brave decision to spend all her savings on ensuring her Galápagos stay was permanent. She bought a house on Isabela Island, right on a white-sandy beach, and her love affair with the animals blossomed from there.
Galápagos life has changed a great deal since 1998 though, she explains. “When I first arrived, the streets were made of sand. Everyone got around by bicycle and there were hardly any cars. Cargo ships came once a month.”
Upon switching from graphic design to guiding, Ximena learned more and more about the menace posed by invasive species. “They are the main threat to the pristine Galápagos ecosystems,” she says.
Everything from rats that came scurrying off the ships, to blackberries which were intentionally cultivated, has wreaked havoc in the centuries since the Bishop of Panama’s accidental visit.
Of all the introduced species, though, Ximena says that it is we humans who are number one in the destructive stakes. There are some, she says, who don’t respect the islands’ delicate balance. The malaise can be extreme, and she has even witnessed locals eating the iconic Galápagos giant tortoise.
That’s why Ximena founded the Emma Darwin Foundation (EDF), which has two principal missions. The first is better education for Galápagueños.
“The islands’ survival depends on the people that inhabit them today,” she says. “Education is the only thing that can make a difference.”
The EDF is named after Charles Darwin’s wife. “She’s the one who made Charles’ work known to the world,” says Ximena. “She used her language capacities to translate and report evolutionary developments in Europe, so she represents a scientific role that has not been spoken about yet.”
“In the Galápagos, where everything is named after Charles, there is not a single reference to her. This is why I have decided to honour her.”
This overdue recognition of an overlooked woman tallies with the EDF’s second main mission: equality and breaking the cycle of domestic violence.
The spectacular isolation of the Galápagos – which lie 1,000 kilometres off the Ecuador mainland – has generated remarkable natural wonders but has been less beneficial to the human population. “The justice system has not made it here,” Ximena explains. “Machismo is a problem. It's normal for a man to have two or three wives. Things can be very rough here for women.”
This is why Ximena sent her daughter to California.
“She left when she was nine; she is now 20. She grew up without her mother, says Ximena. “I am crossing my fingers that she studies social sciences so she can go on with the work of the Emma Darwin Foundation when I am no longer here.”
