For those like us that get seasick easily on long cruises, Santa Cruz Galapagos is a welcome island to stretch your legs, visit villages with real people and keep off your cruise ship for a few days.

This Santa Cruz map shows you the second biggest of the Galapagos Islands (only Isla Isabela is bigger) with an area of 986 km². Isla Santa Cruz is actually a large dormant volcano with a maximum altitude of 864 meters.

We reached its harbor Puerto Ayora which has the largest human population on the Galapagos islands. The best news however is that this island has many hotels, so you can say goodbye to your cruise ship cabine and enjoy solid ground under your feet for as log as you stay.

Lots of things to see and to do on Isla Santa Cruz Galapagos, we especially enjoyed our bike-rides. Of course there is the Charles Darwin Research Station with Lonesome George – the very last tortoise of his particular species from Pinta Island – and many other giant tortoise preserves.

On a funny note: although Santa Cruz houses the Charles Darwin Research Station, Charles Darwin himself never set foot on this island!

But best of all: Santa Cruz Galapagos is a great place to be when you are not used in sailing for days on the sea like me I will post what we did exactly in Santa Cruz in my next post.

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In order to enjoy South Plaza island the fullest, you need to arrive before the tourists arrive. That means early in the morning greeted by the sea lion colony on the coast and with a lovely sunrise.

The night however from Genovesa Island Galapagos to South Plaza in our little Galapagos cruise was tough: we needed to take 2 and a half tablet of Primatour in order not to get too seasick. But all that was well worth the early arrival: a beautiful sunrise, sea lions, land iguanas and even another blue footed booby.

South Plaza island is famous for it’s typical vegetation: pear cactus trees make the "opuntia cactus forests" and "sesuvium" grows at ground level. It’s red from  June till January and green during the rainy season. Sesuvium is the main nourishment for the large colony of "grazing" land iguanas on South Plaza Island.

A little bit of snorkeling with the awesome sea lions and off we went towards close by Isla Santa Cruz.

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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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Birds and all animals for that matter never encountered hostile humans, so you can really come up close and personal with the animals you want to observe and take marvelous pictures (depending on your photography skills of course).

Galapagos Flycatcher

Just have a look at this Galapagos Flycatcher: couldn’t get any closer than that!

This Galapagos flycatcher (Myiarchus magnirostris) was exceptionally bold and curious. After first sitting on the hat of our Galapagos National Park Naturalist Guide, the flycatcher went and visited the heads of most of us.

Picture taken at Post Office Beach during my visit to the Post Office Barrel on Floreana Island.

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Galapagos is part of Ecuador, South America. The Galapagos islands are in the Pacific Ocean on Ecuador’s western Pacific Coast. Galapagos lies about 1000km away from the South American Continent, which makes it an ideal island group for Galapagos cruises..

Galapagos Maps

You can see the enlarged Galapagos Map and find other Galapagos at: Galapagos Maps. If you still are looking for another Galapagos Map, please ask and leave a comment.

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