The Galápagos Islands have long been heralded for their rocky, volcanic shorelines teeming with rare, endemic wildlife, and visitors to Ecuador’s far-flung archipelago will discover natural beauty everywhere they go!
On my left, I can see a sea lion nursing her young on a staircase that descends. To my right in the late afternoon, marine iguanas with ash-black scaling cling to warm rocks by the sea. I look over the metal guardrail to see a trio young reef sharks making their way serpentine across the marina. It’s my first day in the Galápagos, Ecuador’s far-flung, eastern archipelago, wildlife is everywhere, and I haven’t even left town yet.
The Galápagos Islands have long been heralded for their rocky, volcanic shorelines teeming with rare, endemic wildlife. To understand their remarkable present, it’s important to look back at their complicated past. In the 17th Century, the group of islands was a well-known stomping area for pirates waiting in anticipation to raid Spanish galeons. Early buccaneers considered the giant tortoises, which inhabited much of the island’s landmass, to be a reliable and important food source.
In the late 1800s, European…
