REMOTE
Situated in the middle of Pacific Ocean, 1000 km from the west coast of South America and belonging to Ecuador, the Galapagos are the second most preserved and protected area in world. The Archipelago of Galapagos comprises of 19 volcanic islands, with 97% of it’s territory considered National Park and only 3% of it is habituated, with the population distributed on only four of the islands. The Galapagos are located exactly on the equator line, which makes it very special in several different aspects. Due to it’s geographic position the chain is influenced by three different main currents: The Humboldt current, which comes from Peru, bringing cold waters from the south, a current from the north, which comes from Panama bringing warm water – and the Cromwell current, a deep, cold, nutrient-rich stream coming from the west, originating near the south pole. There are also two different winds that reach the Islands. All these different factors bring life and climatic conditions from different parts of the world. As Galapagos is extremely isolated, all the different animals had to develop and adapt in many different ways in order to survive the new climate. So, through the millions of years, many new species have been formed, famously allowing it of the most unique and endemic environment in the world. The penguins, the incredible marine iguanas and giant tortoises, and many others help explain why Darwin chose these islands to create the evolution of species theory.
My wife-to-be Maria and I had planned this trip together and it couldn’t have turned out in a better way, since we were lucky enough to stay onboard the Mormaii catamaran whilst exploring the islands. I was expecting it would be more of a fun safari trip and I imagined I’d be using my snorkel kit than my windsurfing and SUP gear.