Since lots of visitors are asking me who discovered the Galapagos Islands, let me give you 5 names of importance.
The Incas discovered the Galapagos Islands
Of course you expect western history books to mention a western name when it comes to discovering the America’s or Galapagos.
Most likely though, the Incas already discovered the Galapagos Islands as early as the 15th century. But since no Inca ruins where found on Galapagos nor any written Inca document, this discovery is merely classified as a legend.
Of course there are no written Inca documents found as the Incas didn’t have a written language in the first place, or so we tend to believe.
I mean: if I go on holiday, I do bring souvenirs, so if you are a bit smart and turn my house up side down, you will easily find out which places I have visited. No need to read my blogs nor journals!
The legend goes that Inca king Tupac Yupanqui on his voyage to the west discovery two "Islands of Fire". Some people do believe he discovered Easter Island though…
Tomás de Berlanga discovered the Galapagos Islands
In the 16th century, after the discovery of America, Tomás de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama was sailing to Peru. His ship was drifting without wind, went off course by the currents and landed on the "Galapagos Islands".
The year was 1535 and unhappy to say the least: Tomás de Berlanga stranded on an island without much water.
He didn’t bother to give the island a name and described it as:
"I do not think there is a place where one might sow a bushel of corn because most of it is full of very big stones and the earth is much like dross, worthless, because it has not the power of raising a little grass."
Of course nowadays everybody trained in survival skills knows to find fresh water on the Galapagos Islands by following the tortoise paths.
Ortelius discovered the Galapagos Islands
Ortelius was the first to name the islands Galapagos Islands, named after the giant saddleback tortoises.
In 1570, the name "Insulae de los Galopegos"
appeared for the first time on Ortelius’s world map.
Ambrose Cowley discovered the Galapagos Islands
Because the Spanish were transporting gold from the Americas to Europe, the English began pirating them. This made the Galapagos Islands an ideal hideaway for the English pirates and buccaneers.
In 1684, buccaneers Ambrose Cowley drew the first navigation chart of the Galapagos Islands and named each of them. A small islet east of Isabela still bears Cowley’s name.
Since fresh water is crucial to the survival of the pirates, it was clearly stated on those maps as Buccaneer Cove on the northwest end of Santiago.
Darwin discovered the Galapagos Islands
Darwin only visited the Galapagos Islands in 1835 but made the Islands famous because of Darwin’s famous theories like:
- the "survival of the fittest" and
- "all live evolved out of one entity".
Did you already discover the Galapagos Islands?
Please leave a comment if you ever visited Galapagos so we can add you to our list of people who discovered the Galapagos Islands.
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I will post what we did exactly in Santa Cruz in my next post.
