The Galápagos Islands

The islands rose from the sea floor over a volcanic hotspot, the oldest of them a few million years old and the youngest, Fernandina and Isabela, still erupting. Plants and animals arrived by chance, on wind, currents and rafts of vegetation, and evolved in isolation into the species found nowhere else. There is no evidence of permanent human settlement before Europeans.

Tomás de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama, drifted to the islands in 1535 and described their giant tortoises, or galápagos, which gave the islands their name. Pirates and buccaneers used them as a hideout in the seventeenth century, and from the late eighteenth century whalers and sealers took thousands of tortoises as live food, leaving a barrel on Floreana that served as a post office. Ecuador annexed the islands in 1832. Charles Darwin spent five weeks there aboard HMS Beagle in 1835, landing first on San Cristóbal, and the differences he noted between islands later fed into On the Origin of Species in 1859.

Settlement was slow and often grim: a sugar plantation on San Cristóbal ended when workers killed its owner, Manuel Cobos, in 1904; European settlers on Floreana in the 1930s left a tale of disappearances still unsolved; and a penal colony on Isabela forced prisoners to build the Wall of Tears. The United States built an air base on Baltra to guard the approaches to the Panama Canal. The national park was created in 1959, the Charles Darwin Research Station opened in 1964, and in 1978 the islands were among the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with the marine reserve added later.

Galápagueños are mostly descendants of settlers from mainland Ecuador, who arrived over the twentieth century, joined by a small community of Europeans and North Americans. Island life has a frontier feel and a strong sense of being guardians of a special place, alongside some frustration at the limits that conservation places on fishing and building.

Conservation is the local culture in a very real way: schoolchildren learn the rules of the park, residents join clean-ups and restoration projects, and guides, many of them islanders, are trained and licensed by the park. Tensions have flared over the years, notably in the 1990s, when sea-cucumber fishermen protested against catch limits.

The calendar follows mainland Catholic fiestas, with each town honouring its patron, and the islands celebrate the anniversary of the province, created in 1973, in February. Football on sand pitches, beach volleyball and surfing on San Cristóbal fill the evenings, and sea lions share the town beaches and benches with people.

About 33,000 people live in the islands, on four of them: Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz is the largest town, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristóbal is the provincial capital, Puerto Villamil on Isabela is a small sand-street village, and Floreana has only a few dozen households. Farming communities such as Bellavista on Santa Cruz and El Progreso on San Cristóbal lie in the green highlands.

Tourism is the economy, bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors a year and employing guides, boat crews, hoteliers and cooks; fishing for lobster and fish, and highland farming of cattle, coffee and fruit follow far behind. Residency is controlled under a special law of 1998, so moving to the islands from the mainland is restricted.

Days start early and follow the boats, and the towns are quiet by late evening. Current issues include fresh water, which is scarce, the arrival of invasive species on cargo ships and flights, the pressure of tourist numbers, the cost of living, and plastic waste washed in from the ocean.

Almost everything except seafood and some highland produce arrives by cargo ship from Guayaquil, so island cooking is mainland Ecuadorian food with a sea-to-table twist. Ceviche of fish, shrimp or octopus, fish in coconut sauce, and grilled fresh catch are the staples. Spiny lobster, langosta, is served grilled or in garlic.

In Puerto Ayora, evening kiosks set tables in the road and grill lobster, fish and meat to order. Encebollado, the mainland's tuna-and-cassava soup, is a breakfast favourite here too.

The highlands of Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal grow coffee, sold under island brands, as well as bananas, papaya, citrus and cattle for local beef, and some farms offer tastings. Fresh juices and batidos are everywhere, and most beer is shipped from the mainland, though small local breweries have appeared.

Santa Cruz is the hub. In Puerto Ayora, the Charles Darwin Research Station runs a tortoise breeding centre where the famous Lonesome George lived until his death in 2012. A paved path leads to Tortuga Bay, a long white beach with marine iguanas and a sheltered cove for swimming. In the highlands, wild tortoises roam the El Chato reserve and neighbouring farms, and Los Gemelos are twin pit craters in scalesia forest.

San Cristóbal has sea lion colonies on the Puerto Baquerizo Moreno waterfront, the interpretation centre, the frigatebird colony of Cerro Tijeretas, the freshwater crater lake of El Junco, the Galapaguera tortoise centre and Kicker Rock, or León Dormido, the split remains of a lava cone. Isabela offers the Sierra Negra caldera hike, the flamingo lagoons near Puerto Villamil, the Wall of Tears and Galápagos penguins.

The wildlife cruises reach what the towns cannot: Bartolomé's viewpoint over Pinnacle Rock and Sullivan Bay's fresh lava on Santiago, blue-footed boobies on North Seymour, land iguanas on South Plaza, the waved albatross on Española, the red-footed boobies of Genovesa, marine iguanas and flightless cormorants on Fernandina, and Post Office Bay on Floreana.