Galapagos islands  is a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. It is a province of Ecuador lying about 1,000km off its coast and is a UNESCO site.

It is considered one of the world’s foremost destinations for wildlife-viewing. It has been called a unique ‘living museum and showcase of evolution’. It has varieties of marine species, land iguana, the giant tortoise, flightless cormorants, huge cacti, endemic trees and the many different subspecies of mockingbirds and finches – that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection following his visit in 1835.

Visit to these islands bring you closer to wildlife. Most are tame and are without instinctual fear. You can literally sit near a sea lion or a land iguana. You see a lot of birds including pelicans, frigatebirds, albatrosses and blue-footed boobies.

As they are volcanic islands, the landscape is different. Some have rocks and some have grayish material like a breeze block. The place looked like an alien planet – Mars or the moon. You also find a large number of lava tunnels found across the Galapagos Islands and one can walk into it.

At the Charles Darwin Research Centre one could see giant tortoises. We saw Lonesome George who passed away two years after our visit in 2010. Lonesome George was in relatively good health and his age was estimated at over 100 years old at the time of his passing.