Visit Galapagos

Galapagos Islands

The uniqueness of Galapagos is largely due to the remoteness of the Archipelago which has never been connected to the lands of the South American continent. This has left the animals, plants, bird life, reptiles and marine life who have either migrated or arrived by sea to develop somewhat differently to their mainland brothers and sisters, for example the various types of reptiles inhabiting the islands are all exclusive to the islands while 25% of the nearby shore fish and over 50% of all plants are also unique only to the islands and found nowhere else.

UNESCO has imposed strict codes of practice on the Galapagos, for example, the whole ocean surrounding the Archipelago and 97% of all land area is controlled and monitored under the Galapagos Marine Reserve and National Park which has around 56 landing sites with specific trails and boundary lines to adhere to which helps protect further these untouched pristine lands from man.

The sites have also been specially selected to give the visitors the widest selection possible on the various faunas, flowers and surrounding wilderness that are endemic only to these islands for a once in a lifetime experience that will never be repeated unless revisited. Periodically certain trails or islands are closed to tourists due to overcrowding or kept to minimum quotas only permitting the smaller boats to land. The main reason for this strategy is to allow the nature to recuperate itself and take a break from the plethora of tourists that tread the lands because some damage is always caused due to the fragility of the nature that exists here.

Important: Please never leave any trash on the islands as it may be hazardous to wildlife and never touch plants or wildlife or feed them because our foods are alien to them, in any case they can feed themselves and have been self sufficient for hundreds of thousands of years and don't need our help or concern.

Island cruises. The major types of visiting and cruising around the various islands are day boats that drop you off each night to your hotel and the more expensive tour where you sleep on the boats at night. With the latter the advantage is obvious in that you cover more area of water and journey through the night awakening to new scenery and landing areas each day. The tours all start with morning flights from the major island and end with mid to late afternoon flights on your final exit day.

It is a good idea to check the itineraries of the boat you select before booking as the quality will vary from boat to boat. You must also make a full analysis on the size of boat you wish for spaciousness versus accessibility as some landing areas don't allow larger boats to land due to the fragility levels of nature that exists on certain islands. Generally larger vessels will travel further distances than the smaller ones.

Also note that you are not permitted to bring any food onto the islands so breakfast and lunch will always be taken on the vessel before disembarking.

All craft are given pre-schedules for specific time allocations to the various islands prior to embarking on their routes on specific days which is duly marshaled by the National Park.

Galapagos wildlife

The main mammals on the islands are rats, sea lions, seals and a couple of bat species as the islands have been always segregated from any Pacific main lands. Some however, are under more threat due to man importation of donkeys, dogs, black rats and goats.

Sea Lion.- (Zalophus californianus) Related to the Californian family species there is an abundance of sea lions throughout the whole Galapagos islands who parade in large colonies on the rocks and coastlines on all the islands. The beaches are patrolled by the males who will protect female groups of 30 and over, you will be able to differentiate from the female sea lions as the former have domed foreheads and are much larger in size and protect their territory of up to 100 sq. meters and involves protecting their young offspring in addition to attacking invaders. Mating season is around May-January and is a time of heavy guarding and responsibility for all the males. Sea lions especially the females will playfully swim with you as well as surfing large waves and are found mainly on South Plaza, Santa Fé, Rábida, James Bay (Santiago island), Española, San Cristóbal and Isabela.

Fur Seals.- (Arctocephalus galapaoensis) Sea lions as well as Fur seals have with their attractive pelts made it a very hunted and near extinct creature due to greedy whalers and skin hunters but luckily many have survived due to hiding under rocks and sheltered areas such as lava cracks in Santiago island and Puerto Egas. The fur sea lion is much smaller than the sea lion and has larger rounded moist eyes and pointed noses with more significant ear formations

There are 27 species of reptiles found on the Galapagos divided in five families as follows: snakes, geckos, Iguanas, lava lizards and, the giant tortoises.

Giant Tortoises.- (Geochelone elephantopus) The Galapagos and the Seychelles are the sole islands housing giant tortoises while the Galapagos name originates from the Saddleback tortoise meaning galápago or saddle.

14 subspecies of this wonderful ancient has been located on the islands and 11 survive to this day. The most senior tortoise lives in the Darwin Research Station and is purported to be a grand 170. Longevity results through perhaps a stress free lifestyle as all their life consists of is eating, mating and sleeping with no predators at large in addition to nesting during February to May when the females prepare to lay their eggs which take between 3 to 8 months to hatch.

Today the Darwin Research station is helping to increase the current 15,000 population of giant turtles and along with the Santa Cruz tortoise reserve on San Cristóbal housing the highest population of all islands the captivity approach is working effectively.

Marine Turtles.- (Chelonia mydas) The pacific green turtle mates around December-January and lays its eggs from 80 up to over 100 in a hole in the darkness of night with Floreana beach being a popular area for the laying of their eggs.

Land Iguana.- (Conolphus pallidus or subscristatus) These iguanas feed most of the time with yellow flora and fruits of the islands such as prickly cactus pear and exist in two major forms, namely; Conolphus subcristatus which has yellow-orange coloration on Santa Cruz, Plaza, Isabela and Fernandina islands and secondly conolphus pallidus, which is decorated with brown and whitish coloration but is found only on Santa Fé.

Galapagos Penguin.- (Spheniscus mendiculus) These penguins surface around 5-7 am in the early morning and are considered the most northerly of their species while they live and breed mainly on Isabela and Fernandina islands and have current populations of around 2000.

Boobies.- Typical on the islands are the three types of Boobies, these are the red-footed, blue-footed and the masked booby while the name was given to them for the levels of tameness and fearlessness with humans.

Of the three the most populated variety is the Blue-footed booby called Sula nebouxii and usually lays multi eggs making it the only one to do this of the three, they catch the fish by sky diving and also have exquisite courtship dances as many birds on these islands also display.