A Family Adventure: 49 Years Of Transformative Travel In The Galápagos Islands
Interview and edit by Rebecca Woolford, Senderos
This is a story of a father and his two daughters who embarked on hiking, rafting and horse-back adventures in Peru and who spent their summers at the Darwin Centre in the Galapagos.
‘Hard work, eye-opening, extremely rewarding’ is how Marika – Bill’s youngest daughter – describes those early days. Helping her dad with his travel business, along with her sister, they navigated remote locations at a time when Latin America was in the early stages of tourism.
Bill Roberson’s initial vision, inspired by a sabbatical to Latin America 49 years ago, lives on today with no less energy, enthusiasm and vigour.
Integrity Galapagos continues to transform their guests’ outlook on life, reconnect them with nature, and raise awareness on the fragile ecosystems found in the Galápagos Islands.
In the interview below, with Bill and Marika, find out how it all began, how Bill became one of the first licensed Galapagos naturalist guides in the world, the impacts of climate change on these islands and what makes their itineraries unique.
Left image: Bill Roberson with his family and the third generation of Integrity Galapagos Right image: Bill and Marika enjoying the sunshine
What journey led you to become one of the first licensed Galapagos naturalist guides in the world?
Bill – “My journey to becoming one of the first licensed Galapagos naturalist guides begins on a farm in rural Michigan.
I left home at an early age, setting out on what would become a lifetime of travel and adventure. After earning a BS in Arizona, I worked as a banker in San Francisco but soon realised that wasn’t for me.
When the opportunity arose to join the ski patrol for the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics, I seized it. When the snow finally melted, I set off for New York City with my skis, $500, and a ticket for an Atlantic ship crossing.
After my money was stolen upon arrival, but with a paid week of shipboard meals, I had nothing to lose. From there, I explored Europe, which cemented my passion for travel.
A pivotal point in my life was when I returned to the San Francisco Bay Area to go to grad school and from there to conduct research and teach physics. There a student introduced me to whitewater rafting, and I spent my summers guiding on the river.
This inspired a sabbatical in which I travelled all around South America.
Travelling around the Cusco area, my two daughters and I, and a handful of guests, navigated the trails with horses and mules, the same trails where Mountain Lodges of Peru operate today. We had an incredible time, taking guests up to elevations of 15,000 feet along precipitous trails that anybody in their right mind wouldn’t go.
I later found an opportunity to get into the Galapagos Guide Course through connections I’d made, and was one of the first Galapagos Naturalist Guides. I’m pretty sure my license number is 74!
From there my family and I hosted trips for guests to Peru in the summer, and then we’d add a Galapagos trip to the itinerary.
We were inspired and motivated to get people out into the wilderness, reconnecting with nature, which often changed their entire outlook on life.”
Left image: Bill Roberson in Peru deep in conversation Right image: Marika and her sister horse trekking in Peru on their summer break
Marika – “It was fascinating growing up in a family like mine, with adventure travel at every turn. We car camped, skied, and we often took spontaneous trips. And so when my father went to Latin America on a sabbatical and came back glowing with ideas, inspiration and energy me and my sister quickly responded “where do we sign up?”
In my first year, a junior in high school, I went to Peru with my sister and father. We built our own rafting frames in Cusco for river rafting. We brought our own horseback saddles. This was the first time that foreigners seemed to be travelling this route, as it was primarily a route used by local communities to transport produce between the lowland jungle to high altitude Andes.
We were responsible for setting up the tents and were doing the cooking for guests. The conditions weren’t ideal, we had no heat and it would be snowing. It was our responsibility to take care of the guests and we’d have to get up early to make coffee.
It was hard work, eye-opening, extremely rewarding, and gave us access to remote locations in a time when Latin America was in the beginning stages of tourism as it is experienced today.
I remember when we’d return home from these trips with our dad, and our friends would talk about their summer jobs and I wouldn’t know how to put into words what we had experienced.
Seeing my father’s dedication to excellence, delivering unparalleled experiences for guests at Integrity Galapagos, trips that profoundly changed people’s lives, it had a huge influence on me.”
Left image: A young Marika out on the river rafting Right image: Bill Roberson, founder of Integrity Galapagos relaxing on a rock and contemplating another adventure
What made your approach at Integrity Galapagos so different to most others and does that still hold true today?
Bill – “I think our approach was different from the outset because we came from being naturalist guides ourselves, that have led a number of our own trips, so you know what’s really important in a trip. I believe the most important thing is getting the right naturalist guide.
The boat guests get to enjoy is lovely and the accommodations are luxurious and the logistical support and tasty food is a given, but what really matters is the experience that the guests have and that is driven by the guide. When you have guides that are extremely knowledgeable and are natural teachers, the guests connect with the place, people, and wildlife.
Integrity, the boat, is owned by a family who live in the Galápagos Islands. We’ve learned through the many years that the boat operator we partner with has to share our vision, ethos, values. This is essential to create an unparalleled experience for our guests.
For example there’s a lot of remote islands in Galapagos, and the farthest ones out are the most rewarding. But to do that, you can’t be on a trip that comes back to port midweek to either change guests out or spend time visiting the island of Santa Cruz and the Darwin Station.
So, when our guests arrive in Galapagos, they don’t go straight to the boat, but spend some time up in the highlands, seeing the tortoises in the wild. This is important as our guests get a sense of the place before boarding the boat, they have the chance to shrug off the city, recover from their travels to the Galapagos before we embark on the adventure on board the Integrity boat.
Once onboard the boat, we sail out and have the opportunity to visit more remote islands because we’re not forced to come back midweek to go visit Santa Cruz and the islands.
Integrity has 3 decks with 9 large and well-equipped stateroom cabins on the main deck, including the owner’s cabin; it’s one of the most comfortable and luxurious of any yacht in the Islands.
The owner and operator of the Integrity boat is Pacific Marine Enterprises, owned by Rolf Sievers and his family.
Rolf migrated with his family from Germany to the Galapagos in 1962. He was 20 years old at the time and arrived in the Galapagos when there was very little tourism. He was an early manager of the Charles Darwin Research Station and oversaw the Station for 10 years before starting a Galápagos touring company. They had to build a place to live in, there was no airport. A ship would come maybe once every three weeks or four weeks.
Rolf grew up here and made a life with his family. His wife, Rosaura, was born in Galápagos and has applied her knowledge of the Islands to raising their sons, Dirk and Christian, who combine their island resourcefulness and creativity with degrees in engineering and finance.
The family owns and operates its own maintenance base in the islands to ensure the yacht is kept in peak condition at all times. Integrity, the boat, has not missed a day of service in the 20 years since its inception in 2005.
Rolf is a very bright man and understood from inception what mattered for these islands. We’ve been doing trips in the Galapagos together since 1978, and have embarked on thousands of departures. As a result we’ve been able to put together a really tight team.
Many of the boat owners out in the Galapagos belong to multinational corporations, they bank in the Bahamas or in New York and they have absolutely no hands-on close connection to the islands themselves. I would say that probably 80% of the owners of the higher end yachts and ships are people and companies not from Galapagos nor do they live in Galapagos.”
Marika – “To get a real sense of what we do, and our unique approach, is to firstly appreciate and understand how connected we are to this place.
I recall my sister and I spending a month living in a shack with no water, no electricity, behind a local woman’s house in the early years. At the time there was one street in Puerto Ayora with four churches, three bars and one grocery store.
We were there experiencing this lifestyle that was so different from a typical American upbringing. It was very rewarding and it endeared us to the Galapagos and to what is special about it.
We would go to the Darwin research station and hang out with scientists and immerse ourselves in the conversations. To this day the research station is one of the most important places in the world in my life.
When people come back from their trips with Integrity Galapagos and say how it’s transformed them and then many years later bring their children to experience what they did, it’s transformational. It reinforces to me the power of nature and reminds me just how special these islands are.”
Can you tell us about the naturalist guides you work with and how that shapes the guest experience?
Bill – “When inside the national parks, you must be accompanied by an experienced guide by law and we’ve a team of extremely knowledgeable guides, some of which are scientists.
Our guests get access to their wealth of experience, and direct insight into first-hand research which takes our guests to another level of understanding.
Richard, one of our guides, has worked with us for nearly 40 years, Greg from Vancouver 30 years and Pati from Switzerland, she’s been guiding with our guests for 20 years. They are not native to the Galapagos, they have however lived here long term.
95% of our guests are from the US, Canada and the UK. And with western guides that have the same culture it can sometimes make communication easier.
There have been positive law changes that are encouraging native naturalist guides. In order to become a naturalist guide today, you have to either be born in the Galapagos or married to someone from the Galapagos
Although our guides are not native, 90% of the employees were born in the Galapagos and the boat is owned and operated by a family who migrated to the Galapagos over 63 years ago.”
Could you tell us about any sustainable practices, and conservation efforts that Integrity is a part of?
Marika – “The majority of the staff who work on the vessel, the seamen and the captain live in the Galapagos. And the owners have been living in the Galapagos for decades. All the people who work in maintenance are from the Galapagos. And so the majority of the money stays in the Galapagos and doesn’t leave through tourism leakage.
The family who own the boat are also involved in a reforestation project up in the Highlands. They’re so integrated in the community in terms of support that it’s sometimes hard to tease out of them what they’re doing because it’s just a part of their everyday life.
We’re involved with the Galapagos Conservancy and the Galapagos Conservation Trust and their work in various projects in the islands for supporting the local community, for dealing with plastics, which is a big problem because of where the Galapagos are located in the currents.”
Bill – “Our guides are responsible for maintaining these fragile islands. They educate guests about what you can and cannot do, taking away memories and maybe leaving a few footprints, but that’s it.
You can’t collect anything, you can’t bring any materials with you, you can’t smoke ashore, you can’t drink ashore other than water. When guests go ashore they are shown where to walk, and understand why it’s required to stay on the trail and remain with the guide at all times.
Integrity is probably the first yacht in the archipelago to be fitted with its own wastewater treatment system, a 6-stage unit capable of processing 2,000 gallons (7,570 litre), treating black and grey water and producing sterile effluent for disposal.
The Sievers family are involved in supporting the local schools, and are extremely considerate and careful with the mainland operation to make sure that when they wash sheets, towels it’s done in an ecologically mindful way.
They have their own maintenance shop, which they carefully run in town for the boat. They help support the guides and the naturalists and the scientists around the different islands to conduct their own research.
The boat engines are probably the most efficient of the Galapagos in that they are electronically controlled. Which means the fuel is metered and based on the RPMs and the power needed to move the boat. And I think most of the other boats out there don’t have electronically controlled engines. It’s incredibly fuel efficient.”
Can you share with us something most people don’t know about the Galapagos?
Marika – “Ask any naturalist, scientist or park ranger what the biggest challenge facing the islands is, and they will likely tell you that it’s the threat posed to local wildlife by invasive species.
While in the Ecuadorian archipelago, guests will certainly start to hear about invasive species in the Galapagos Islands.
There’s about 35,000 people living in the Galapagos right now on the different islands. And they need the support of imported items.
So these invasive species are not coming from drift matter, but through produce being delivered on airplanes, via ships. Two of the most commonly known invasive species are the feral goat and the hill blackberry plant.
We have been working supporting the projects that the Galapagos Conservancy has been spearheading. They’re training dogs to smell out giant snails, another invasive species here, because one giant snail can have thousands of eggs so the population can explode quickly. And so they’re training dogs to find the snails to capture them before they breed.
We were also very involved in the past when there were projects to eradicate feral goats, pigs, and burros on certain islands, another example of an invasive species”
Bill – “The goats found their way here a long time ago when early fishermen, whalers and sealers left goats on various islands in order to have a source of fresh meat, a technique that they used in remote islands all over the world. And the goats simply exploded in numbers, but they’ve been removed now from most of the islands, which is a positive step.”
The Galapagos Islands, known for being one of the best wildlife watching sites in the world. What’s your favourite to see in the wild when out with guests and why?
Marika – “The Galapagos is home to so many endemic species. But my favorite has got to be the marine iguana because it is ubiquitous and it sort of looks like a rock. They are really cute and they have such a unique life cycle and existence because they feed on sea algae and they’re the only marine iguana. They’re the inspiration for Godzilla.
And they have fascinating physiology. In times of environmental stress, they can shrink their skeletons, not just their body mass, but their skeleton actually shrinks. And then in times of abundance, they can restore their skeleton. They can adjust their metabolism for being underwater for an incredible amount of time in the cold currents and then they come up and they sun themselves on the rocks to warm up and digest in the heat of the day. And they’re just gorgeous colours.
Bill – “That’s a hard call because they’re sort of all my favourites.
Probably the ‘boobies’ which is a seabird. They live in large noisy colonies on the Galapagos Islands and tend to roost, breed and live out their lives in these colonies.
There are three species of boobies and they all have unique feeding patterns. They all nest differently. The blue-footed Booby feeds in close to shore by plunge diving. And the red-footed feed much farther out to sea. And then the Nazca Boobies feed farthest out. So they feed in different ecological ranges. Their behaviour is always entertaining, and during the mating season, they’re always whistling and pointing, you have to see it to believe it.”
Across the past 40 years, deeply connected and immersed in the place, people and wildlife, what impact is climate change already having there?
Bill “The Galapagos has a little bit of seasonality to it, not much. It’s much cooler in September through November and then much warmer December through March. The climate is driven by the trade winds which come from the southwest of Antarctica and they influence the currents that come through the islands. There’s equatorial currents that begin in the Antarctic that flow up along the west coast of South America and then they turn at the equator and come right out through the Galapagos Islands.
And these surface currents provide a little pressure difference that brings up cold water from down below that’s naturally rich and that supports the phytoplankton, which supports pretty much all the wildlife in the Galapagos. Otherwise, they’d probably be just desert islands.
As the sea temperatures warm, we’re going to see that effect on the plankton, the food supply and on the fish. Warmer conditions may reduce the abundance and primary productivity of phytoplankton and if the waters continue to warm, then that will have an effect on the whole system.
In years when the waters are much warmer, such as the El Nino years, then that has a tremendous effect on the food supply, which helps to decimate sea lions. Marine iguanas have a really tough time, and sea birds suffer, including the penguins, albatross, the boobies etc.
Marika – “El Nino and La Nina are complex weather patterns resulting from variations in ocean temperatures.
The cycle of El Nino and La Nina has been in this seesaw effect in the Galapagos for decades and what we know is that some of the wildlife has adapted and adjusted. They’ve done studies of the finches on Daphne Island and noticed at certain times with El Nino, a certain bill shape in the bird will be more advantageous. And then, a La Nina comes along and a different bill shape will be more advantageous. And scientists and researchers have noticed that an entire population will change their bill shape within a course of seven years or so.
I think that the adaptability of wildlife here in the Galapagos will be seriously challenged as El Nino and La Nina become more intense and unpredictable.”
What’s next for Integrity Galapagos?
Marika – “We’re taking a long overdue trip to the UK to see the Senderos team along with the third generation of Integrity Galapagos, my son Jasper.
In the meantime, we continue to champion the Galapagos and provide quality experiences for our guests. We focus so much on delivering a quality product in the Galapagos that we spend less energy on promoting what we do than most other companies operating here. And that dedication pays off because we have well travelled guests that often share how it’s one of the best trips they’ve ever had.
In fact, 60% of our guests are from referrals or returning guests.”
Bill – Well, the Integrity boat just went through a major total refit this last September, in which the entire interior system was changed and brought to a contemporary style by an incredibly talented artist.”
Discover more about Integrity Galapagos here>
Senderos’ stories celebrate the positive impact travel can bring to both people, places and nature.
< Back to stories