Science at home | Learning about the Galapagos Islands

The kids and I decided to look up information on the Galapagos Islands.  I've always heard about people who want to visit the islands.  But, I really didn't know much about the islands.  In fact, I thought it was only one island!  And I had no clue where they actually were on the globe.  After looking all over Logan's globe trying to find the islands, I had to look it up online.  I found out the Galapagos are off the coast of South America in the Pacific.  Here's a video that we found about the Galapagos and it's many cool animal inhabitants.

 



When we first started looking online, a lot of the information that came up was about Galapagos Cruises.   I figured that was the only way to see the islands.  I really thought the islands were uninhabitable by people.   But according to Wikipedia there are around 25,000 inhabitants on 5 of the islands.   A cruise still seems like a really cool way to see the islands.  I love cruises and a Galapagos Cruise might need to make it onto my 60 before Sixty list.  I don't think I'll be able to make it before I turn 50. . . . . although maybe I shouldn't count it out yet. 

 

If you watched the video above, it said that it's actually a group of 19 islands and dozens of other rocky outcroppings.  It sounds like because of the geo-thermal activity the islands might be constantly changing. 

 

From the website geographia.com we learned that the islands were discovered in 1535 by a Spanish bishop.  He named the island galapagos after the giant tortoises that inhabit the island and can be seen in the video above.  But, the most famous visitor was Charles Darwin.  And after his visit to the islands he began his theory of evolution (whether you agree with it or not).

 

Another thing we learned at geographia.com is that the Galapagos islands have some of the best scuba-diving in the world.  That could be a plus in an attempt to get my hubby to board a Galapagos Cruise ship.  If he has the promise to do something exciting he's more likely to go.  He got his SCUBA license right before I moved up.  That's something I still haven't done.  Maybe if we do something like this, I could find the bravery to get a SCUBA license.  Because  I think it would be something fun that we could do together.  And all of the animals in the Galapagos, both in the water and on the islands look fascinating. 

 

Some of the animals you might find are penguins, iguanas (which I was surprised to see swimming under water in the video above), dolphins, flightless birds, crabs, lava lizards, humpback whales and sea lions.  It sounds like a lot of people go just for the chance to photograph it.

 

Another cool thing about the Galapagos islands is that they're volcanic islands like Hawaii.  As I said above, they are constantly changing.  And they are a national park and part of a marine reserve.  They are situated on the ecuator and are considered part of Ecuador. 

Are you one of the people who have "Go to Galapagos Islands on one of your to-do lists?"