[00:00.35]Three weeks on,
[00:01.19]the shipwreck survivors
[00:02.25]were in the heart of the Desolate Region,
[00:04.96]and in deep despair.
[00:07.22]In the boat's log,
[00:08.01]one of the survivors wrote,
[00:09.10]"The violence of raving thirst
[00:11.51]has no parallel in the catalogue of human calamities."
[00:15.64]They had almost run out of rations,
[00:18.06]and despite being experienced sailors,
[00:20.54]failed to catch a single fish.
[00:23.48]But there are pockets of richness in the South Pacific.
[00:26.91]One was well known to the crew of the Essex
[00:29.25]and would have been in their reach,
[00:30.97]but for the prevailing winds.
[00:32.63]Lying over 700 miles off the coast of South America
[00:35.63]are the Galapagos Islands.
[00:38.45]Unlike the open ocean,
[00:39.98]the seas surrounding these 100 or so islands are bursting with life,
[00:43.88]with many creatures you wouldn't expect to find in tropical seas,
[00:48.41]like these sea lions.
[00:50.42]Despite sitting on the equator,
[00:52.06]the waters around the Galapagos are cooled
[00:54.61]by currents flowing all the way from Antarctica.
[00:57.81]It is this that allows the Galapagos to be home
[01:00.77]to the world's only tropical penguin.
[01:04.22]Tropical fish live here, too.
[01:06.95]Thanks to the nutrients carried by the cool current,
[01:09.98]there is an abundance of life.
[01:11.85]