What’s the Big Deal About the Galapagos Islands?

Penguins, marine iguanas, sea lions, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, HUGE tortoises, baby birds that look like clouds on the ground, and boobies.  Those are some of the many different animals we saw on our adventure in the Galapagos.

Boobies are a type of bird in the Galapagos, they are called boobies because booby is also defined as a stupid or lame person. The boobies walk in a certain way that makes them look silly, so the Ecuadorians started calling them boobies because of the way they walk.   There are three different types of boobies:  blue-footed boobies, red-footed boobies, and the nasca boobies.  Other than the boobies, there are many other distinct species of birds in the Galapagos.

Galapagos finches have many different varieties.  While Charles Darwin was traveling in the Galapagos he collected finches from each of the islands.  He thought they were all the same until a colleague in England pointed out that Darwin brought home over six distinct types of finches.  Darwin began studying more about the many finches and found out they all had different beaks and different sized bodies.  He concluded that the finches all came from one ancestor and were separated onto different islands.  Therefore, the finches had to adapt to life on the island they were on.

Other than the finches, there were many other interesting things about the Galapagos.  There were lava islands and islands full of birds.  You would see a cactus and then look to the ocean and see a penguin.  There is something strange about seeing those two words in the same sentence.  There were sea lions just sun bathing on the white sand, not caring that we were standing right next to it.  The trip was very interesting since the animals had never experienced what it was like to be hurt by humans so they weren’t afraid of us.  In California, if we get to close to wild animals, most will run away and hide.  But in the Galapagos, the animals would just stay where they were and finish what they were doing, not caring that a human was standing right there taking its picture.

In seventh grade (last year), I studied about Charles Darwin and mutations.  Although I learned a lot about evolution during the school based activities, nothing compares to actually be in the Galapagos and seeing the islands with my own eyes.