The Best Galapagos vacations
 Galapagos Travel Natural History Tours of the Galápagos - O ur trips are different. We do about 3 trips a month - most of them spend 11 days in the Galápagos, while about half a dozen each year spend 2 full weeks in the islands. It is the fate of most voyagers, no sooner to discover what is most interesting in any locality than they are hurried from it...Charles Darwin, 1845 Our trips are educationally-oriented and are accompanied by a Tour Leader / Biologist in addition to a local Naturalist Guide. The tours are oriented to the passenger who wants to observe and learn as much as possible about the Galápagos - the animals and plants - on land and in the water.
Vacations in Galapagos There are 13 major islands in the Galapagos Archipelago which lies 373 km/600 miles from mainland Ecuador. This incredibly special place is home to plant and animal species whose ancestors floated of were blown there. In 1959 in order to preserve the original ecology and to control the introduction of new and potentially harmful species 90% of the land surface and all of the ocean out to the national limits was designated a national park. Indigenous fauna lives without natural predators, the birds and animals are virtually fearless. Visitors can walk along trails and pass within inches of numerous species. To minimize your impact on the fragile ecology, the park authorities have established rules which visitors must abide by and these will be explained by your guide. On land, trails have been established and visitors are expected to keep to the trails.
Galapagos adventures The Galapagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands that originated about 10 million years ago. Since their formation 10 million years ago to their discovery in 1535 by Thomas de Berlanga, the Spanish bishop of Panama, the Galapagos Islands were completely isolated from the mainland. Throughout the millennia, a large number of birds, reptiles, insects, and plants drifted or flew to its shores, creating the unique flora and fauna found on the Galapagos today. The islands have never been connected to a continent, therefore, over time species, have developed and adapted to the unique ecosystems of the islands. Many species continued differentiating from their continental ancestors resulting in the development many endemic species (not found anywhere else) on the islands. Until recently, the animals on the islands had no exposure to humans and therefore never learned to fear them and remain extremely tame in human presence.
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