The Galapagos Islands are a volcanic archipelago at 970 km from mainland Ecuador, which is the nearest piece of land. 97 % of the islands is a natural reserve with a fragile ecological balance and many endemic species.

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You can discover Ecuador playing the young naturalist Charles Darwin, who searched these islands and created his notorious Theory of Evolution of species by natural selection.  It is not easy, as the archipelago spreads over 220 km  and consists of 13 main islands, 6 smaller islands and 107 rocks and islets. On all these islands there many endangered species  as seals, fregates, iguanas, sea lions, whales, marine turtles. 170 years ago when Darwin searched the islands, there was practically no human there. Today, there are 40 000 people living on the islands. All these inhabitants, together with the mass tourism do a lot of harm to the animals and plants of the Galapagos Islands. Nevertheless, the animals are still fearless against humans.

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The islands are situated on the both sides of Ecuator, but the weather is not very hot as expected, due to the Humboldt current, which is chilling them. Once at a few years El Nino brings hot weather and heavy rainfall.

You can reach the islands by plane, landing in airport of Baltra Island. The plane tickets from the mainland Ecuador costs 400 $. You can also reach the Galapagos islands by sea, in the ports Puerto Baqueiro Morena or Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz islands. There are 70000 tourists coming every year on Galapagos Islands. They enjoy excellent conditions for surfing and can also discover the wildlife in the natural parks ( daily fee is 100 $) sleeping in the hotel Orca in San Cristobal for 90 $ a night. Organized multiday cruise ship cost 4230 bringing you in the most remoted parts of the islands.

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