Going to Galapagos

What to do in Galapagos

by Christine Loomis

The most overused word in the English language? Unique. But if any place on this planet can accurately be called unique, it is the Galapagos, a collection of 15 main islands, five smaller ones, and countless isolated rock spires and islets straddling the equator some 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. There is a feeling of stepping into the mother of all science projects when you walk through the national-park gates and into the volcanic hotbed of Darwinian theory. No matter what you've read, it's impossible to be prepared for the revelations to come, for the biological extravaganza in your face from dawn to dusk. Romance does not have a traditional vibe here, but it is palpable nonetheless.

Photo op? You don't know the meaning until you kneel in the mist beside a giant tortoise or stand on a rock where dozens of...

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