Galapagos - The Fragata

We returned from the Galápagos at the beginning of July. There are 12 major and 12 minor islands in the archipelago. It is more than 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador so the most common way of getting there is by plane. We, like most tourists, visited the islands on a boat. Ours held 16 passengers and seven crew members. The biggest boat we passed carried 90 passengers. The islands are famous, in part, because of the type and variety of animals, their evolution in an isolated part of the world and Charles Darwin’s research there that he wrote about in the Origin of the Species. The park service that oversees the archipelago has very strict rules about the number of people who can visit the islands at any given time, when they can go, the islands they can visit and where they can walk. Here are pictures of the boat: The Fragata.

http://picasaweb.google.com/fourney/Fragata?feat=directlink