Galapagos Islands travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Named after a Russian navigator who visited in the 1780s, this group of four volcanic islands (five if you count Sea Lion Rock) in the Bering Sea is 320 km north of Unalaska Island in the Aleutians and the same distance south of Cape Newenham on the mainland. The Pribilof Islands have a collective land mass of just 195 sq km and are covered by tundra and meadowland. Photo by: artchase
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Galapagos Islands are volcanic islands located west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are populated with sea turtles, humpback whales and the national park’s trails are inhabited by herons and albatrosses.
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The Galapagos archipelago is part of Ecuador, a country in northwestern South America. It is situated 800 kilometers west of the Ecuadorian coast and lie directly on the equator. The archipelago encompasses over 50 islands of volcanic origin that are spread out over an area of about 4,500 square kilometers. The volcanic Galapagos platform originated probably not more than 15 million years ago and the oldest island not more than 2.4 million years ago.
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A trip to the Galapagos Islands will be the journey of your lifetime. Located 1,000 km from the Ecuadorian mainland, the archipelago consist of 13 major islands, of which 5 are inhabited. This geographical isolation enabled Galapagos Island creatures to slowly change into new versions of themselves, ones that are found nowhere else on earth. Famous examples include the marine iguana and giant tortoise. The islands were the catalyst for the evolution theory developed by Charles Darwin in the early 1800s.

The archipelago has been known by many different names, including the “Enchanted Islands” because of the way in which the strong and swift currents made navigation difficult. The first crude navigation chart of the islands was done by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley in 1684, and in those charts he named the islands after some of his fellow pirates or after the English noblemen who helped the pirates’ cause. The term “Galápagos” refers to the Spanish name given to the Giant Land Tortoises known to inhabit the islands.
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