Meet the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador

One of the opportunities is to know Ecuador has one of the enchanted islands known as the Galapagos Archipelago belonging to Ecuador, located in the Pacific Ocean, 1,050 km from its coast. Form one of the 22 provinces. The archipelago consists of fifteen large islands and hundreds of islets and reaches the surface of 7,844 square km. The most important are Isabela, San Cristobal, San Salvador, Santa Maria, Santa Cruz and Baltra, in that order.

PART OF THE STORY OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

Everything seems that the story speaks of the first to set foot on the Galapagos Islands were the Spanish who in 1535 only gained access to several places which conquer several countries do not call much attention as only found many species and variety of wildlife not being able to interest because they considered it as a desert, this is how the story declares that the Spanish friar Tomas de Berlanga said and just find wildlife call them the enchanted islands.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the islands were a refuge for pirates and buccaneers, who made a scourge of sea routes. The legends of gruesome events surrounding these intrepid individuals, alongside hidden at the foot of cliffs and plateaus of the interior, still fresh memories populate treasures. Countless adventurers of all sorts and nationality, seduced by the hope of easily become beneficiaries of the goddess Fortuna, have constantly busy these places and then leave empty-handed. Although, as stated, the deity of prosperity has not always been quite stingy with them. And who knows if even many of those treasures to remain waiting to be discovered?

During the nineteenth century, ships of war and British and American whaling ships frequently landed on their shores. However, the archipelago was not settled until when Colonel Ignacio Hernandez took possession of it on behalf of Ecuador in 1832. In 1835, Charles Darwin, who was traveling in the British warship Beagle, he spent six weeks studying the fauna and flora the Galapagos. His observations provided him with important data for work On the Origin of Species. Since 1959 the Ecuadorian government made the islands a national park.

The terrapin (giant tortoise whose name took for himself the archipelago that is his home) lives primarily on the coast, hot, dry lava soils bathed in seawater. It weighs up to 700 kilograms and his proverbial gentleness allows man to approach him safely. It is an endangered species because its population today does not exceed 16,000 copies.

The islands of volcanic origin, have flat, interior has high central craters, some of which reach 1,520 m high mountain coasts. Several of the volcanoes are in permanent activity. Mangroves line the islands. Inland, due to the low humidity, vegetation consists mainly of thorns, cactus and mesquite. In the highlands, thanks to the constant presence of a dense fog, the flora is more exuberant, counted up to 750 plant species. The cold Humboldt Current, from the Antarctic, climate changes and temperature of the waters surrounding the islands.

The cactus is certainly the most common representative of the plateaus. his impressive

Presence gives the island landscape extraordinary beauty and a beguiling mystery.

The Galapagos archipelago is famous for its rare wildlife. Most animals that live there belong to endemic species, including six species of giant tortoises or terrapins. Also unique to the islands the two species of giant lizard that originate in the lineage of the iguanas: a terrestrial lizard, which never leaves the vicinity of his burrow, and a marine lizard that feeds on algae submerged in the ocean.

The islands have a large population of sea lions and a variety of fish in the immediate shore waters. Also have 85 species of birds, including flamingos, finches, flightless cormorants and penguins are included.

In the Galapagos flamingos, which are in their lakes abound

And shallows their daily sustenance consisting of microorganisms.

The total population of this island province, whose capital Port Baquerizo Moreno and which is on the island of San Cristobal, is of 16,917 inhabitants. It consists of Ecuadorian and European (German and Norwegian) who came to the islands in the 1920s and 1930. The most important islands have a splendid tourist infrastructure fitted in rigid rules that keep intact the delicate ecological balance of the environment.

The Galapagos, living museum of prehistory, are currently the most important natural laboratory where specialized researchers find enough material to go into the planet's past and perhaps life itself. However, until now they presented them haloed of mystery that can not be observed clearly his background.