Galapagos Island Information, history and animals

Galapagos Islands Information Overview

From sea to mainland the Galapagos Islands are a clear image of the history of Earth's terrestrial evolution. The historical volcanic activity of the Galapagos Islands are visible a long the islands, because of the accidental land created by the great amou nt of lava that build the Galapagos millions of years ago.

Taking a deeper view of the Spartan landscape of the Galapagos Islands, it is in fact a boiling source of wildlife, being a contradiction such abundance of wildlife in a hostile environment. For one moment to another some rocks will move, but what you are watching it's not a rock, but an iguana that even takes it original place without caring about your presence.

When Charles Darwin (the unknown biologist from the HMS Beagle) arrived to the Galapagos Islands in 1835, he surprised himself about the many iguanas that where all around the islands, to the point of getting bored of them.

The wildlife of the Galapagos Islands are extremely adapted to so hostile volcanic atmosphere, located in the Pacific Ocean, 1000 Kilometers west from the continental coastline of Ecuador. This fact and the huge amount of time that the Galapagos Islands where isolated from human life is the reason why the animals are not afraid to humans.

The travelers will have the chance to do some snorkeling in which they will have the chance to watch sea lions with their breedings, penguins, rays, sea turtles and tropical fish of amazing colors.

On mainland the variety of species will show you the Charles Darwin's Dragons, next to the blue foot bobbies nests, playful sea lions and giant foot crabs running around the beach.

The location of the Galapagos Islands is in the fork of 3 marine currents, this originates a natural contradiction that offers an unreal atmosphere as to have one of the biggest concentrations in endemic marine fauna of the world, with relationships that of one of each four species are endemic from the islands.

The Establishment of the Galapagos National Park

In 1934 the Ecuadorian government with the Charles Darwin Research Station had the vision to assure the maintenance of the many wildlife sanctuaries in the islands; declaring it at last a National Park in 1959. From this valuable decision nearly 89% of the islands are protected and carefully managed. As a result the Park Service allows the entrance to only 50 locations, besides the cities, in such a way, that the tourist attractions are the most visited, while the rest of the sanctuary stays unaffected.

How to travel around the Galapagos Islands

The most popular and easy way to travel around the Galapagos Islands is by small boats "pangas" or in a Cruise by the Galapagos, although there are other available options like tours around the mainland or scuba diving. Because of the growing popularity of the Galapagos there are available a wide variety of small and medium size ships for cruises, luxurious sailing ships and medium size vessels.

Most of the cruises share similar itineraries. The most important considerations for picking up a Cruise by the Galapagos are quality, price, crew experience and length of time of the trip. The tours can take from four up to fifteen days of length stay.

The difference between one ship and another resides in the accommodations of their cabins, the crew experience and the guides knowledge.

There are different kind of cruises around the Galapagos the deluxe cruises own high trained crews. The medium ones own bilingual guides usually with a college degree. So in a few words as much as you pay it is what you receive.

The most recommended itinerary takes between 5 to 6 days, since in this period you can visit a great amount of different attractions without missing the most important ones, that are:

• Española, where thousand of blue foot boobies nest, turning it into the biggest seabird colony.
• Floreana, with the flamingos of Devil's Crown and salt beaches. Bartolome with their spectacular views of Tortuga Bay or the swamps of Santa Cruz full with sharks, rays and sea turtles.

Most of the approaches from the ship up to the shore are made in a "panga". The shores are established of rocks and sand beaches, so you should be prepared to make landing in dry and humid ground. The humid landings involve to walk in the sea until the shore with water until the knees, while the dry landings require to use hard footwear or trekking shoes to climb up the steep and humid rocks of the shore as well to have great agility to jump from one rock to another. After a hike around you can enjoy an incomparable rest with the sea lions as companions.