Given the name of the Holy Cross in Spanish, its English name derives from the British vessel HMS Indefatigable.

The Santa Cruz island has an area of 986 square kilometres (381 sq mi) and a maximum altitude of 864 metres (2834 ft) over the sea level. Santa Cruz is the island that hosts the largest human population in the archipelago at the town of Puerto Ayora.

The Charles Darwin Research Station and the headquarters of the Galápagos National Park Service are located in Santa Cruz Island. The GNPS and CDRS operate a tortoise breeding center here, where young tortoises are hatched, reared, and prepared to be reintroduced to their natural habitat.

The Highlands of Santa Cruz offer an exuberant vegetation and are famous for the lava tunnels. Large tortoise populations are found here. Black Turtle Cove is a site surrounded by mangrove which sea turtles, rays and small sharks sometimes use as a mating area. Cerro Dragón, known for its flamingo lagoon, is also located here, and along the trail one may see land iguanas foraging.

The pic belogns to Refractionless flickr user who shares their photos under a CC license.

The name of Fernandina Island was given in honor of King Ferdinand II of Aragon, province of Spain, who sponsored the voyage of Columbus.

Fernandina Island has an area of 642 square kilometres (248 sq mi) and a maximum altitude of 1,494 metres (4,902 ft) over the sea level. This is the youngest and westernmost island of the whole islands. In May 13, 2005, a new very eruptive process began on this island when an ash and water vapour cloud rose to a height of 7 kilometers (4.4 mi) and lava flows descended the slopes of the volcano on the way to the sea.

One of the naturals atractives places to visit in there is Punta Espinosa, this is a narrow stretch of land where hundreds of Marine Iguanas gather largely on black lava rocks.

The famous Flightless Cormorant inhabits this island and also Galápagos Penguins, Pelicans and Sea Lions are abundant. Different types of lava flows can be compared and the Mangrove Forests can be observed.

This pic belongs to Putneymark a flickr user.

The name of this island comes in honor of Queen Isabela and actually this one gets an area of 4,640 square kilometers (1,792 sq mi), of course it is the largest island of the all Galapagos Islands and its highest point is Wolf Volcano with an altitude of 1,707 metres (5,600 ft).

The island’s seahorse shape is the product of the merging of six large volcanoes into a single landmass, if you comes to visit this place you can watch very easily Galapagos Penguins, Flightless Cormorants, Marine Iguanas, pelicans and Sally Lightfoot crabs abound at the skirts and calderas of the volcanoes of Isabela, Land Iguanas and Galápagos Tortoises can be observed, as well as Darwin Finches, Galápagos Hawks, Galápagos Doves and very interesting lowland vegetation are part of the natural show waiting for you.

The picture belongs to RefractionLess a Flickr user who shares their pics under a CC license.

One of the steps to keep in mind when you’re planning your vacations in Galapagos Islands is visit the Galapagos National Park (Parque Nacional Galápagos) in fact a lot of tours include it as part of the local attractions so if you need some additional info about Galapagos Islands or the Galapagos National Park, you can visit their web site.

One of the interesting things than you can do in the Galapagos National Park is work as volunteer; in fact they developed a special program to receive students or professionals who wants to share they knowledge with others by a minimum period of time of three months living and working in the Galapagos Islands.

The program doesn’t include air ticket, hosing or food to the volunteers that would like to cooperate with the institution.

The picture belongs to Galapagos National Park website and it shows the famous lonely George, the most old tortoise in the whole world.

Galapagos Islands are one of the most beautiful places in the whole world and the idea of this blog is show to all the people different options about places where to stay in the islands and of course things to do in there.

Prices, tours and hotels must be reviewed using the info founded in their websites, so the reader of this blog who are planning their vacations can use this info as part of their planning.

I’m not an tourism operator and I don’t have any commercial relation with any of the companies mentioned or reviewed in this blog, I’m just write about the interesting things than you can find in the Galapagos Islands.