Galapagos Islands tourist attractions

Wildlife

The Galapagos Archipelago is home to many endemic species, including the giant tortoise, marine iguana, blue and red-footed boobies, Darwin's finches, and the only species of penguins residing in the Northern Hemisphere.

These islands were made famous with the publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species in 1859, in which he proposed natural selection as a mechanism for evolution.

Darwin had visited the Galapagos in 1835 while on a five-year voyage of the HMS Beagle.

In only a couple months on the islands, he gathered enough specimens of plants and animals to help him formulate the idea of natural selection when he returned to England.

The ease of approach to the creatures of the Galapagos is due to their isolation from natural predators, a condition created by the very processes of Evolution.

Tourist attractions