The H?k?le‘a is in the Galapagos Islands for the next week. Crewmembers are exploring the islands and studying the balance the islands have for tourism and natural preservation. We caught up with crewmember Bryson Hoe as part of our ongoing series H?k?le‘a: Voyage of Aloha.
An update on H?k?le‘a's location:
"So currently, H?k?le‘a is docked in San Cristobal, Galapagos. We arrived yesterday morning, our navigator sighted the islands a few days ago. And currently we’re docked here in San Cristobal, and plan to sail to Santa Cruz Island tomorrow morning.
Today was kind of the first day where we had a chance to explore a little bit. The crew was able to go diving. You know, had a chance to go exploring for a little bit, but I’m sure in the coming days we’ll definitely have a chance to see more of what the Galapagos has to offer."
The crew's plans and thoughts:
"We’ll be in the Galapagos for maybe a week or so. We’ll be exploring the Darwin Research Station, different community efforts to try and negotiate that tricky boundary between the benefits of tourism but also the impacts. And how do you steward and protect the pretty pristine natural environment. Like today we learned that about 97 percent of the Galapagos is protected under the national park. And so even in San Cristobal, the population is around 4,500.
Most of the town is pretty confined to maybe a 10 by 4 block area. And you know, you come off the dock and there are sea lions lying right next to where you’re trying to get on these water taxis. Maybe in San Francisco, for example, they’re pretty removed from the walking path. But you walk down the street here, and there’s wildlife walking right alongside you."
Follow the H?k?le‘a's journey on Google Maps:
