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Galapagos Islands

Galapagos Islands Travel

The Galapagos Islands (also of the Galapagos Islands and Archipelago officially Columbus, which geographically make up the Island Region of Ecuador) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean located 1050 miles off the coast of Ecuador.

Politically they are a province of this country, whose capital is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. Consists of 13 large volcanic islands, 6 smaller islands and 107 rocks and islets, which are distributed around the earth line of ecuador. Tourists receive the appeal of "Enchanted Islands".

Galápagos National Park

Galapagos is one of the few places in the world where tourism is orientated distinctly the nature, constituting an educational activity.

The Galapagos National Park Service is the governmental institution in charge of the protection and management of protected areas in the Galapagos archipelago. Its aim is to protect and conserve the archipelago's ecosystems and its biodiversity for the benefit of humanity, local populations, science and education.

Areas of the National Park for public use are clearly defined and distributed in almost all the major islands of the archipelago. There are 54 terrestrial visitor sites and 62 marine visitors.

Galapagos History

On March 10, 1535, Fray Tomas de Berlanga accidentally came across the archipelago, which was formally incorporated in Ecuador on February 12, 1832. The province is created for the third time and final form as the Galapagos, the February 18, 1973.

Galapagos was declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve.

The islands are volcanic basalt peaks with an elevation of 1.5 kilometers of the marine platform. There are others such as elevations in the Cerro Azul Isabela, volcano boilers 4 and 9 meters in diameter and with depths of up to 1 kilometer. The area has been developed from basalt, either as lava or piroplastos (ash or pumice).

There are four islands that are inhabited cantons San Cristobal, Isabela, Floreana and Santa Cruz, with an extensive agricultural production, fisheries and livestock.

Galapagos Province is divided into three cantons:

1. Santa Cruz
2. San Cristóbal
3. Isabela

Main Galapagos Islands

The archipelago is known by a variety of names. Archipelago is the official name of Columbus. The first navigation chart of the islands, although rustic, was done by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley in 1684, and named the islands the letter with the names of some of his friends and some pirates British nobles who supported the cause of the pirates.

Singular importance of species that inhabit the islands include:

- Giant turtle and giant tortoise (Geochelone nigra), which is the animal that gave its name to the islands.

- Iguana Land Conolophus subcristatus and Conolophus palidus.

- Marine Iguana, Amblyrhynchus cristatus (the only species of iguana that seeks its food in the sea).

- The endemic lava gull, Larus fuliginosus.

- 13 species of finches, of which the best known species of bird is a vampire that feeds on blood of sick birds and is known as Darwin's finches which inhabits the northern most island of the archipelago, Wolf.

- The Galapagos penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus (the only species that has been in the northern hemisphere in the northern portion of the island Isabela).

- A species of flightless cormorant, Nannopterum harrisi.

- The kestrel, or in the Galapagos hawk (Buteo galapagoensis), also endemic.

- The dwarf heron in the Galapagos.

- The burrito of Galapagos endemic bird of the family Rallidae