Galapagos Islands
A visit to the Galapagos Islands is a journey, which will be etched in your memory for life. It is an unlikely paradise for peculiar wildlife, with a rich and colourful human history as well. Five million years ago volcanoes erupted from beneath the Pacific Ocean. Magma exploded and rocks uplifted to create a ring of 13 islands, 17 islets, and 47 reefs 1,000 km west of the shores of Ecuador. In 1535, Tomás de Berlanga, then Bishop of Panama, floated into this cluster of islands, after days adrift in the western Pacific. He declared the archipelago the ‘Galapagos’ after the giant tortoises he encountered. For centuries only pirates and castaways took refuge in the Galapagos. Charles Darwin, who explored the region in 1835 aboard the HMS Beagle, partially based his theories of evolution on his experiences in the islands. The islands are brimming with wildlife, a vast number of endemic species and some very amazing landscapes.
Only in the Galapagos can you snorkel with a penguin on the equator and, on the same day, swim with a sea lion in a secluded bay or meet face to face with a flightless sea bird. Due to the isolation factor, many animals have no natural predators, so they are somewhat fearless. Around the Galapagos, the cold Humboldt Current mingles with the warm Pacific, making the waters hospitable to fur seals, sea turtles, dolphins, whales, and sharks, all unafraid of human predators. Enjoy the crazy courtship dance of blue-footed boobies, watch puffed-up, crimson-throated frigate birds show off for their mates, see hundreds of waved albatrosses and ponder the world's pinkest flamingos. Marvel at marine iguanas, lava lizards, and masked boobies. There are many ways to explore the Galapagos Islands, from small sailing ships to motor yachts and larger cruise vessels. For the non-seafarers, hotel based programs are also available. Listed in our Galapagos section are some of our preferred programs, but if you have another program in mind we should be able to find it for you. Put the Galapagos on the top of your list of must do’s and enjoy ‘the experience of a lifetime’.