Galapagos Islands Cruise Ship

Click on the picture to see Galapagos islands

The first people known to have visited Ecuador's Galapagos Islands were exploring Spanish sailors, and later pirates, buccaneers and whalers, using the islands as an outpost and food supply [mainly Galapagos Tortoise steak], but it was an exceptional naturalist from England who appreciated the significance of the Galapagos wildlife and turned traditional religious and scientific thinking on its head - Charles Darwin.

The voyage of the HMS Beagle was to turn out to be a rather special cruise; when Charles Darwin first stepped onto St Cristobella Island in 1835, he first dismissed the place in generally unfavourable volcanic terms, only to soon discover that it held the conceptual key to the vast differentiation of life on Earth - evolution.

Darwin published his findings in 'The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life', 1859. It is so fundamental in its findings that it still remains banned, particularly due to religious belief, in some sections of society today.

It is this significance - a concentration of related species that have locally evolved distinct differences - which is one of the best reasons to take a Galapagos Cruise, in addition to the proximity that human visitors can achieve to truly evolutionary creatures in this little Ecuadorian outpost.

Galapagos Map | Galapagos Cruises