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Galapagos Islands |
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The Galapagos Islands remain one of the great natural wonders of the world and few travel writers know them better than Lonely Planet author, Michael Grosberg. These are his Galapagos 'must-dos' Click here for Galapagos Islands Overview.
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This island in the centre of the archipelago offers a rare chance to swim after frisky penguins and take in the view of a lunar-like landscape, all in the space of an afternoon. Picture postcard perfect, though not beautiful in conventional terms, Isla Bartolome is generally a 'must see' for the average boat tour.
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This site on the volcanic island of Isla Fernandina in the west of the Galapagos provides the most mesmerizing example of inter-species coexistence. Watch your step, since everywhere you turn there are groups of animals casually waddling or swimming or, in the case of the enormous colony of marine iguanas, just hanging around.
After a few days in the Galapagos, it’s easy to become entirely casual about spotting beautiful birds and lumbering sea lions but two particular sites on Isla Espanola raise the experience to another level. And there's more variety to what you can see and do on this island than on most.
Isabela, the largest island in the Galapagos, is a volcanologists dream. Five young and intermittently active volcanoes create a skyline as dramatic as Manhattan’s but it’s the animals who thrive in this isolated landscape that make the long and frequently rough trip here worth any potential queasiness.
Puerto Ayora makes for a pleasant respite for landlubbers and there are plenty of sites and activities close-at-hand. Where else can you line up for the ATM behind a lumbering sea lion?