The Galápagos Islands

     The first sighting by Europeans of the Galápagos Islands was in 1535. It is possible that ancient Mantan, Incas and even Polynesians visited the islands, which lie 600 miles off the Pacific coast of Ecuador. From their European discovery until their incorporation into Ecuador in 1832, the islands served as a refuge for European and American pirates, whalers and sealers, where they re-stocked supplies of firewood, water, and giant tortoises for meat, which could remain alive for a year in ships' holds.
     Just as the islands were undergoing permanent setlement, the Beagle dropped anchor in San Cristóbal Bay and the 26-year-old naturalist Charles Darwin strode ashore. Previous scientific expeditions had been mounted, but with Darwin's visit, the enormous biological and geological significance of the Galápagos islands was recognized. Although he stayed for only five weeks in 1835, Darwin made many of the observations upon which he based his theories of evolution and the mutability of species. He noticed 13 types of finch, each with a different beak designed to collect its particular food.
     The island's romantic appeal was tarnished over the following century, when a penal colony was established on the island of Florena. Conditions were harsh, administrators gratuitously cruel. The original colonists, some 80 soldiers whose crimes of insurrection had been pardoned, fled the island, leaving the prisoners to their fate. As recently as 1944, a colony was established on Isabela to which increasingly hardened criminals were sent. It was dissolved following a riot and mass escape, and in 1959, the islands were declared a national park.
     The archipelago was designated a World Heritage Site in 1979 and a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 1985. In an attempt to stop illegal fishing and in recognition of the conservation issues, in December 2001, UNESCO declared the Marine Reserve around the islands a World Natural Heritage   Site. In 1997 the government introduced a law preventing new tourism operations until 2005, and visitor levels have been restricted to 65,000 per year.
     There are 13 major islands, six small and 42 islets spread over an area of 30,000 sq. miles. The land consists of lava resting on a basalt base, volcanic refuse produced by successive underwater eruptions which continue today. The islands have never been connected with the mainland, but emerged from the water individually over a million years. The violence of the geological past is most evident on Isabela with its chain of five volcanoes as high as 5,600 ft. One of them, the Sierra Negra, has the second largest crater in the world, measuring 6 miles in diameter.
     Seeds were transported accidentally by birds and abroad ships. Today the islands support almost 900 plant varieties, the most revered of which is the palo santo, found in abundance on Isla Rábida. There are six distinct vegetation zones ranging from low-level desert to the uppermost pampa. A walk up to the old sugar mill on San Cristobal passes most of them.
     On San Bartolomé, two sparkling horseshoe beaches are separated by a narrow strip of semi-tropical forest. From the island's summit, one of the best vantage points in the archipelago, the uninhabited volcanic wasteland of Santiago stretches away to the west. Within this desert is a fresh water spring.  Flamingos dance around the nearby lagoon, and bury each other up to the neck in the coffee-colored sand of Espumilla Beach, and, near Puerto Egas fur seals swim through an underwater tunnel between the open sea and two small, clear pools.