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Galapagos Island Information
Baltra Island
Baltra Island or Isla Baltra is a small island of the Galápagos Islands. Visitors to the Galapagos Archipelago often put their foot here first, as it is home to the main airport, Seymour Airport. The airport was built by the Americans during World War II. This island sits just 1 km off the northern coast of Isla Santa Cruz and has no real tourist attractions. It has an area of 27 sq. km.
To the north lies Mosquera, a small sandy bank with a large colony of sea lions.Access to Santa Cruz Island...
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Bartolome Island
Bartolome Island (Spanish: Isla Bartolomé) is a volcanic islet just off the east coast of Santiago Island. It is one of the “younger” islands in the Galápagos archipelago. It is named after Lieutenant David Bartholomew of the British Navy.
With a total land area of just 1.2 km², this island offers some of the most beautiful landscapes in the archipelago.
The island consists of an extinct volcano and a variety of red, orange, green, and glistening black volcanic formations.
A volcano...
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Española Island
Española Island is also named Hood Island. It is located in the extreme southeast of the archipelago and is considered, along with Santa Fe, one of the oldest, at approximately four million years. It is about a 10- to 12-hour trip by boat from Isla Santa Cruz.
Tourists come to see the albatrosses and the mating dances of blue-footed boobies on Española Island.
Because of its great variety of sea birds it is very popular with birdwatchers. You can encounter masked and blue-footed boobies, Galápagos...
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Fernandina Island
Fernandina Island is the third largest, and youngest, island of the Galápagos Islands. The island is an active shield volcano that last erupted on August 2007. The island was formed by the Galapagos hotspot. The southern flank of the volcano had a fissure eruption that generated flows, which subsided within hours.
This is the youngest and westernmost island of the archipelago. It was named in honor of King Fernando of Spain, who sponsored the voyage of Christopher Columbus. On the 14th of February...
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Floreana Island
Floreana Island was named after Juan José Flores, the first president of Ecuador, during whose administration the government of Ecuador took possession of the archipelago. It is also called Santa Maria after one of the caravels of Columbus. It has an area of 173 km² and a maximum altitude of 640 metres.
It is one of the islands with the most interesting human history and one of the earliest to be inhabited.
Pink flamingos and green sea turtles nest (December to May) in this island. The “joint...
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Genovesa Island
Genovesa Island occupies about 14 km² and its maximum elevation is 64 m. The horse-shoe shaped island has a volcanic caldera whose wall has collapsed, forming the Great Darwin Bay, surrounded by cliffs.
Lake Arcturus, filled with salt water, lies in the centre, and sediment within this crater lake is less than 6,000 years old.
Although no historical eruptions are known from Genovesa, there are very young lava flows on the flanks of the volcano.
This outlying island is situated at the northeast...
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Isabela Island
Isabela is the biggest island of the archipelago and occupies about 60% of all the land area of Galápagos. It was formed by the volcanoes Cerro Azul, Sierra Negra (Santa Tomás), Alcedo, Darwind, Wolf and Ecuador that conflated to one island. All except Volcán Ecuador, which is older, are still active today. Even though Isabela has several visiting sites, it is not very frequented by tourists.
Most of the landing sites are on the west coast and only larger boats make this long journey.The small...
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Rabida Island
Rabida Island is situated south of the island Santiago. The landing site is a dark red coral beach which is occupied by sea lions. You can swim and snorkel with them and especially the pups are very curious. The saltbushes nearby are used by the brown pelican for nesting, if it is season.
The trail leads to a salt water lagoon where you can occasionally encounter flamingos and white-cheeked pintails. It is also home to a sea lion bachelor colony that is waiting for their turn to take over the colony.
Continuing...
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San Cristobal Island
San Cristóbal (Chatham) is the easternmost island in the Galápagos archipelago, and one of the oldest geologically.
Its Spanish (and most commonly used) name San Cristóbal comes from the Patron Saint of seafarers, St. Christopher. Its older English name of Chatham is that of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.
San Cristóbal has an area of 558 km² and its highest point rises to 730 meters.
The capital of the archipelago, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, lies at the south-western tip of the island. At...
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Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz has the largest population in Galápagos especially in the twon of Puerto Ayora. With its about 20,000 inhabitants it is the largest human settlement on the islands and offers some touristic facilities.
One of the first visitor sites is the Charles Darwin research center. It is visited during most of the cruises and should not be missing on any trip to the archipelago. While walking through splendid mangroves (consisting of red and black ones) you encounter huge iguanas.
The visitor center...
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