Travel to the Galapagos Islands

Travel to the Galapagos Islands is unlike any other holiday you will ever take. Recently a contender for One of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World (it didn’t win unfortunately) but it is One of the 7 Natural Underwater Wonders of the World, Galapagos is a nature lover’s paradise filled with Galapagos animals found no where else on the planet who even pose for pictures with a unique landscape as the backdrop on your Galapagos holiday.

Location - The Galapagos Island are a group of 12 major and 12 minor islands 1000 kilometres (600 miles) of the west coast of Ecuador in South America. Its remoteness means it’s off the beaten path. Approximately 200,000 tourists travel to the Galapagos Islands each year, which may seem like a lot but when you consider that Paris, France has ~14, 000,000 tourists each year you start to understand that it is not heavily populated with tourists.

Conservation – Only five of the twelve islands are inhabited and 97% of the Galapagos is a protected national park. Furthermore Galapagos is the only archipelago in the world that has maintained 95% of its original biodiversity. These impressive conservation efforts result in amazing Galapagos animal sightings on your holiday.

Galapagos is home to numerous Galapagos animals endemic (found nowhere else on the planet) to the Galapagos, including the flightless cormorant, Galapagos penguin, and other bird species and the marine iguana. The only iguana in the world that swims! Galapagos is also a bird lover’s paradise with over 58 species of birds. It is also home to the Galapagos penguins, the only penguins in the world to live north of the equator! Galapagos is also home to the world's most famous tortoise, Lonesome George.

Perhaps the most endearing thing about Galapagos animals are that they have no fear of humans. Blue footed boobies (white birds with bright blue feet that the male uses to attract the female), lay their nests right on the ground since they have no predators. Pretty incredible, but what is more amazing is that both parents will go off to feed, leaving the chick by itself – no babysitter required. You could actually touch the chicks (we didn’t because this is against the Galapagos National Park regulations) but they had no fear. Imagine that you’re 12 inches tall awakened from your nap by a group of tall creatures who are at 5X times your size, and noisy on top of it all getting really close to you. Pretty intimidating? Not if you’re a blue footed booby chick. They would just look at you with their big brown eyes and some of them would even ham it up for the cameras – born stars already!

Not all Galapagos animals put out the welcome mat though on your Galapagos holiday, especially at the boat docks. There is a ruler of the boat docks and they can be rather intimidating. Who am I talking about? Why the male (bull) sea lions of course. Many of times, the bull would occupy the dock and despite the amount of clapping and shouting a group of fourteen people would do, it was clear who controlled the boat dock and it wasn’t us. Instead of using the dock to get on an island, we would slowly crawl our way up on shore on slippery uneven rocks while the bull finished his nap. Fortunately the pups and moms were much more friendly and cooperative when posing for pictures. Galapagos animals are definitely one of the higlights of travel to the Galapagos Islands.

Galapagos diving is also famous and for good reason. The above mentioned sea lion pups and females are sure to entertain you with their acrobatics although the bulls will let you know who is boss (it isn’t you) underwater as well but at least they give you a few warnings before biting into you.

There are also sharks galore – Galapagos, hammerheads, and white tips. Divers are also likely to see silkies, depending on where they go. Did I mention the schools of eagle rays and the possibility of seeing the elusive gigantic manta ray? Not to mention sea turtles and schools of fish so large they block out the sun. Galapagos diving and seeing the underwater critters is equally if not more impressive than the land critters, but seeing both the land and sea critters are a must and are one of the higlights of travel to the Galapagos Islands.

Think you're not interested in geology? Think again. The geology in the Galapagos is fascinating and is another highlight of travel to the Galapagos Islands. Perhaps most surprising was that some of the islands looked like moonscapes and that each island looked vastly different from the next. Formed by volcanoes, Galapagos will fascinate everyone, even us non geologists.

Another unexpected geological surprise are the lava tunnels, underground tunnels over 1 km (.6 miles) which beckoned to be explored on your Galapagos holiday.

Did I mention that Galapagos was where Charles Darwin started to develop his theories on evolution by studying the different beaks of finches?

Did I also mention how good the food was? I was also pleasantly surprised by how amazing the food was on Santa Cruz and reasonably priced, although I do confess I didn’t try one of Ecuador’s famed dishes – skewered guinea pig on my Galapagos holiday.

In conclusion, if you are a nature lover a Galapagos holiday is an incredible destination. Before the trip, I was wondering what was so special about travel to the Galapagos Islands, but while there, I had many moments of feeling that all was right in the world – a place where blue footed boobies can leave their chicks without fear of predators, a place where we saw four whale sharks (the world’s largest shark) on two dives, a place where tortoises grow larger than anywhere else on earth – up to 600 pounds, a place where animals don’t fear humans.

In the meantime, if you've had your own Galapagos holiday, I'd love to hear your opinion. For further reading I would recommend Galapagos at the Crossroads.