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 600 miles west of the mainland we now call 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 there. For centuries only pirates and castaways took refuge in the Galapagos. Since the time of the eruptions, however, a myriad of plants, animals, and other organisms populated these volcanic outposts.
Long isolated, the Galapagos enchanted a young naturalist from England, Charles Darwin, who explored the region in 1835 aboard the HMS Beagle. The rare life forms he encountered there helped him formulate his theories of evolution. In 1859 he published his ideas in The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection and forever changed the study of biology.
"Hence both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact - the mystery of mysteries - the first appearance of new beings on this earth." Charles Darwin, from Voyage of the Beagle, 1845
"Even before I reached the top of the sandy beach I was greeted by the first land birds of Indefatigable - three mockingbirds which ran rapidly down toward me - one singing as his feet flew over the sand. They stopped a yard away and looked me over. First, as always in days to come, I was surprised and charmed by their tameness. There were two old birds and a youngster in spotted baby plumage and when they stopped he came on and picked off a grain of wet sand from by shoe". - William Beebe, from World's End, 1924.
Explore Earth's "living laboratory", where the wildlife wander freely and fearless of naturalists and photographers. Observe prehistoric land-iguanas, the Galapagos namesakes, 600-pound giant tortoises, and 13 species of finches, each with a distinct beak. These beak adaptations led to Darwin's theory of evolution. Almost all the reptile species and half of the species of plants and birds found throughout the archipelago live only in the Galapagos.
Only in the Galapagos you can snorkel with a penguin on the Equator and, on the same day, swim with a sea lion in a secluded bay or go eye-to-eye with a flightless sea bird. The islands' isolation from the mainland means that many animals have no natural predators, therefore their apparent fearlessness. Around the Galapagos, where cold and warm waters intermingle, fur seals, sea turtles, dolphins, whales, and sharks thrive, 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, gaze, awestruck, at hundreds of waved albatrosses and ponder the world's pinkest flamingos. Marvel at marine iguanas, lava lizards, and masked boobies.
"The world has a few very special places and fewer still that live up to their hyperbole. The enchanted isles not only gratify on both counts, but also, nourish the soul of one of the earth's last peaceable kingdoms".
"The guides and crew shared their knowledge and hospitality with us, however, more importantly, they infused with their passion for their home, their park, their very special place... and ours as well."
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