Popular destinations in Peru & Ecuador

The Galapagos Islands

The Galápagos archipelago (official Spanish name Archipiélago de Colón) has a population of around 40,000, and is a province of Ecuador.

Straddling the equator, islands in the chain are located in both the northern and southern hemisphere with Volcano Wolf and Volcano Ecuador on Isla Isabela being directly on the equator line. Espa?ola the southernmost island and Darwin the northernmost island are spread out over a distance of 220 km (137 miles).

The group consists of 13 main islands, 6 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The islands are located at the Galapagos Triple Junction. It is also atop the Galapagos hotspot, a place where the earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, creating volcanoes. The oldest island is thought to have formed between 5 and 10 million years ago. The youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption in May, 2008 when the 1,690 meter high (5,541 feet) Cerro Azul mountain started spewing lava after 10 years of inactivity on the island of Isabela.

The voyage of the Beagle brought the survey ship HMS Beagle under the captain Robert FitzRoy to the Gal?pagos on September 15, 1835 to survey approaches to harbors. The captain and others on board including his companion the young naturalist Charles Darwin made a scientific study of geology and biology on Chatham, Charles, Albemarle and James islands before they left on October 20 to continue on their round-the-world expedition. Darwin noticed that mockingbirds differed between islands, though he thought the birds now known as Darwin's finches were unrelated to each other and did not bother labeling them by island. The Englishman Nicolas Lawson, acting Governor of Gal?pagos for the Republic of the Equator, met them on Charles Island and as they walked to the prison colony told him that tortoises differed from island to island. Towards the end of the voyage Darwin speculated that the distribution of the mockingbirds and the tortoises might "undermine the stability of Species". When specimens of birds were analyzed on his return to England it was found that many apparently different kinds of birds were species of finches which were also unique to islands. These facts were crucial in Darwin's development of his theory of natural selection explaining evolution, which was presented in The Origin of Species.

The sheer number and variety of life forms both on land and in the water in the Gal?pagos is quite awe-inspiring. Nearly 9,000 species call the islands and their surrounding waters home. The isolation of the Gal?pagos has resulted in some of the highest levels of endemism in the world. Endemic species – found nowhere else in the world – are common throughout the islands, and many are nearly unchanged since prehistoric times. 

Of the thousands of animals found here that resemble their mainland ancestors, many have evolved so extensively in isolation that they are now classed as distinct species. Over three-fourths of the reptiles and land birds are endemic and often exclusive to certain islands.
The marine world is equally rich. The staggering diversity of marine life ranges from cold-water species such as penguins – the only species to occur in the Northern Hemisphere – and marine iguanas – the only lizard to swim in the ocean. Other marine species include enormous aggregations of sea lions and warm-water species like manta rays and corals. Some 400 species of fish swim alongside sharks, turtles, urchins, sea cucumbers, crabs, anemones, and sponges. 

The Galapagos Islands has become one of the world´s premier destinations for travelers wanting to experience some really unique wildlife both above and below sea level. Should you cruise or simply stay on land, you will be amazed at what the Galapagos Islands have to offer.