Marc Patry owns the specialty Galapagos travel agency “Cultural and Natural Heritage (CNH) Tours” along with his wife Heather Blenkiron (the TripAdvisor destination expert for Galapagos). Marc worked at the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park Service for 4 years before embarking on a career with UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre. During his 12 years there he was responsible for monitoring the state of conservation of Latin American World Heritage sites – including Galapagos. Few travel agents know Galapagos better than Marc and Heather.
“The Galapagos islands?”, a prospective visitor muses… “Ah yes, the land of Giant tortoises, iguanas and Darwin’s famous finches…” are likely the most common associations made. But lesser known, yet almost equally common wildlife encounters while in the islands will be with sharks. “Sharks?!? I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that!” is the usual response […]
While most people consider Galapagos as a wildlife photographer’s paradise (they are not wrong), the islands also offer a wide variety of striking land and seascapes. Born of fire, the archipelago consists of over 100 islands and islets formed by regular volcanic eruptions over the past 5 million years. The newest islands to the west […]
The Galapagos penguin is one of the smallest and rarest of the 20 species of penguins alive today. Only knee high, it’s also the only penguin that lives in the northern hemisphere (some of them live just a tad above the equatorial line in Galapagos). Its ancestors likely drifted up on the cool Humboldt current, […]
We asked 12 naturalist guides with a combined 231 years of guiding experience in Galapagos to rate each visitor site on a scale of 1-100 against 5 distinct criteria: i) overall diversity and abundance of animal and plant species; ii) chances of seeing iconic Galapagos species; iii) landscape beauty iv) beach quality and v) snorkel […]
Underwater Galapagos offers even greater wildlife viewing than on land. The Galapagos Marine Reserve is among the largest in the world, covering an area equivalent to the size of Greece. In 2001, the Galapagos World Heritage site, formerly applied only to the land portion of the archipelago, was expanded to include the newly created reserve. […]
Leaping dolphins, darting penguins, lumbering giant tortoises, diving boobies, graceful rays and eerie iguanas – these are just a few of the unforgettable sights you can expect to share with your children on a Galapagos family cruise. The islands were tailor made to provide a diversity of once-in-a-lifetime moments you’ll reminisce about for years to come. […]
Sure, you can walk on down to the Charles Darwin Research Station in the town Puerto Ayora to have a look at captive tortoises in their pens (part of a breeding program) or do the same again in the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal island, and one more time in Villamil on […]
