Blogs from Galápagos, Ecuador, South America - page 8

Arrived late afternoon to our final stop of the Galapagos; Santa Cruz...most folks start here, a lot of the cruises leave from this most populous island of the archipelago and it certainly has the most infrastructure of the islands we saw...a few things planned but with only two full days here and it being the end of the line we certainly wanted to squeeze in a little more relaxin'... Having already stopped here in transit to Isabela we had a bit of the lay of the land which was great...on our previous stop we managed to take in the Charles Darwin Research Station which was cool, although a large portion of it was under renovations so the museum was closed and the baby tortoises had been relocated which was a drag...a couple of pens of the ... read more

With a great introduction to the Galapagos on San Cristobal (and a stopover on Santa Cruz) we arrived at our second destination: Isabela. Largest of the Islands, and also the least populated (of the ones with folks on them at any rate) we approached this stop as a chance to chill out in between sightseeing adventures...decided on spending a bit more as well to be on the beach on a recommendation, and couldn't have worked out better... Arrived late afternoon to Puerto Villamil, and after a short taxi ride into town we settled into our digs for the next few days, Casa Los Delfines...great place, the woman who runs it is really sweet, we had access to a large balcony on the third floor overlooking the beach/ocean and the included breakfasts were delicious... Once settled we ... read more

Ah Galapagos, the place has always held a fascination for me; the diversity of land and marine animals, volcanoes, land of Darwin's origins of Evolution and the sheer remoteness, what's not to like?? This has always been in my top ten of must sees, and now it was time to explore... The conventional way to see the Galapagos is aboard a boat and cruising from spot to spot, but after seeing how bloody expensive this option was we decided to island hop our way around...while not seeing as much perhaps there was still plenty of opportunity for wildlife watching and best of all at our own pace (after speaking to several travelers over the course of our trip we discovered that the cruises were indeed pretty cool and that last minute opportunities were available at a ... read more

Today we went out on the boat again, this time to Santa Fe Island. It took us about an hour and a half to motor over to the island. I know I found it very hard to stay awake as the Altamar rolled gently from side to side as she motored along into a head wind. I don't think that I was the only one who had a little snooze on the way either! On our way were were treated to sightings of some turtles and a couple of sea lions. When we arrived at the island our boat was able to pull into the sheltered bay very close to the sea lion colony. We were ferried ashore again in the inflatable dinghy right onto the beach covered with lounging sea lions. Felipe pointed out the ... read more

The Galapagos Islands, Darwin and evolution are closely connected in most people’s minds. The truth, however, is far more mundane. The breeding of dogs by English dog-breeders and pigeons were what inspired Darwin. The Galapagos and its wildlife on the other hand hardly features in his book, ‘The Origin of Species’. In fact when Darwin came to the Galapagos he was far more interested in its geology than its wildlife. Though presumably he became more interested in its wildlife once he was there. You can hardly not become more interested in its wildlife. He seems to have ridden on the back of one of the giant tortoises, so clearly he had a bit of fun while on the islands. Evolution also had very little to do with me coming to the Galapagos, and neither did geology. ... read more