NATIONAL PARKS AND RESERVES

Here you can find important information about some of the most beautiful National Parks and Reserves of Ecuador.travel

Machalilla National Park - Cotopaxi National Park - Chimborazo Forest Reserve - Cajas National Park - Petrified Forest of Puyango - Podocarpus National Park - Yasuni National Park - Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve - Galapagos National Park

 GALÁPAGOS NATIONAL PARK

GALÁPAGOS NATIONAL PARK
	Zoom

Situated in the province: Galápagos
Created: July 4th, 1959
Size: 693.700 ha – 1.714.000 acres
Altitudinal Rank: 1 - 1.707 meters
Admission fee: US $6 for national turists and US $100 (cash) for foreign tourists

Description of the zone

The Galápagos Islands are one of the largestt scientific and tourist attractions of Ecuador. It constitutes, without any doubt, Ecuador’s most attractive and best-known tourist sight.

Galápagos has a volcanic origin. The Archipelago is constituted by 13 major islands, 6 small islands and 42 islets, located north and south of the equinoctial line. Ninety seven per cent of its total surface is a protected area of the Galápagos National Park. The other 3 % is constituted by inhabited areas, and they are situated on Santa Cruz Island, San Cristobal Island, Isabela Island, Floreana Island and Baltra Island, which is a military base of Ecuador’s Armed Forces.

The islands constitute Ecuador’s oldest national park, established in 1959 with the aim of preserving its unique flora and fauna and a spectacular landscape.

The greatest attractive of the islands is the renowned endemic wildlife of the islands, located 600 miles away from the nearest continent. Giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies, flightless cormorants, waved albatrosses, and marine iguanas roam around in what Darwin described as a "living laboratory" of evolution.
The animals of the Islands depend on the ocean. Birds and animals that live close to the water have a variety of distinctive habitats. This habitat has given birth to unique endemic species including the world's only sea-going lizard, the marine iguana. Other notable wildlife includes the sea lion, fur seal, Galapagos penguin, flightless cormorant, waved albatross, lava gull and swallow-tailed gull.

The waters surrounding the Galapagos Islands are home to 3000 species of marine plants and animals. Diving in the Galapagos is quickly expanding; divers seek the experience of spectacular marine life including whales, sharks, hammerheads, manta rays and leopard rays.

TOP