From Europe to Galapagos:

I took a flight from Amsterdam to Quito, but we had to stop in Bonaire and Guayaquil.

It’s a "relatively" short flight: less than 10 hours later we arrived in Bonaire to stretch our legs… Then another 2.5hour flight to Guayaquil and yet another half an hour to Quito…

All in all not easy to reach (and then you are still not at the Galapagos islands) but you are in need of a good night rest!

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Once you are having your Galapagos Island vacation, you cannot look next to the Galapagos turtles: the turtles on the Galapagos Islands are the biggest turtles in the world!

Galapagos Islands tours

If you opt for visiting the different Galapagos Islands on a tour, then make sure to use your eyes like Darwin did: have a look how these turtles look different on each Galapagos island, being adapted to the specific vegetation and life conditions of each specific Galapagos Island.

Read more at: Galapagos Turtles

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Frigate Birds in Galapagos and beyond are the only sea birds that are not waterproofed!

Frigate birds produce hardly any oil and therefore don’t want to land in the ocean. They do attack and rob other seabirds of their fish.

Since they are never in the sea, you will notice them up in the air: they are those large black birds looking like big black kites. And they perform a fast and amazing display when they dive after fish dropped by other seabirds.

Their body is as big as a chicken and the tallest Galapagos frigate bird can have a wingspan reaching more than 7 feet (or 2m).

Although frigate birds seems to have black feathers when you see them flying in the Galapagos sky, their feathers produce different colours when they refract the sunlight:
 

• Magnificent Galapagos Frigate Birds will refract purple colours
   
• Great Galapagos Frigate Birds will refract green colours.

Male frigate birds have a typical red patch of skin at their throat. During courtship, males will force air in this red gular pouch as if they were carrying a big red balloon.

We didn’t see any frigate birds’ courtship when we visited Galapagos, as the birds where hatching when we set foot on the North Seymour Islands.

On the picture you see a female Frigate Bird of Galapagos as females are marked with white colours below.

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