If you're embarking on one of our 11-day "Natural History Tours" - there's a good chance your guide will be Daniel Angermeyer Fitter.  

Not only is Daniel an accomplished Galapagos Naturalist Guide, he's also an accomplished individual.  He has co-authored books on Galapagos, has been an on-again / off-again professional photographer, and he's also a community leader.   

But Daniel also has an amazing family history. 

Sensing the gathering storm clouds and unwilling to go along with the growing authoritarian nature of his homeland, Daniel's grandfather, Johannes Angermeyer, was one of 5 sons (Heinrich, Gus, Carl, Johannes and Fritz) who left Germany in 1935.  They acquired a sailboat with Galapagos as their destination.  At the time, Galapagos had received a lot of attention in the German press, portrayed as "the last paradise".  It's easy to understand how adventurous but disillusioned young men would choose it as a destination for a new life.

It was a long journey there, and following a near shipwreck off the SW coast of England, the boys arrived more than a year later.  Conditions were much harsher than imagined of course.  Very little fresh water, no electricity, rocky volcanic soils had discouraged many who came before them.  But not the Angermeyers.  Their doggedness and unbridled enthusiasm served them well.  Today, many of their descendants, including your guide Daniel, still live in the islands.  

Their story is told in a lovely book (My Father's Island) written by Johanna Angermeyer, the grand-daughter of one of the brothers, and our naturalist guide's aunt.  She tells the dramatic story of her mother's life Emma - emigrating to Nebraska from Russia as a young girl.  Emma meets a dashing Ecuadorian pilot training there, forever changing her destiny.  Johanna ends up spending summers in Galapagos in the late 1960's, recounting her adventures - be they out on goat hunting expeditions with her uncles, encountering eccentric folks in the highlands, being invited aboard yachts of wealthy visitors...  He older sister Mary (Daniel's mother) figures prominently.

It's part diary, part drama, part history and a very pleasant read - giving you a glimpse of what life was like in Galapagos in the 1950's and 1960's - when the only way to reach the islands was by ship.  

Angermeyer family tree, from Johanna Angermeyer's book "My Father's Island". 

 

First published in 1989

 

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