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Monday, April 14, 2014

Galapagos at the Crossroads...


While Carol Ann Bassett focuses on the current challenges facing the Galapagos Islands and their fragile ecosystem--challenges like overfishing, invasive species, colonists, pollution, and tourism--she also touches on their history and the amazing biodiversity of life found here. It's a well-written and eye-opening book.

Here are some of my favorite Galapagos facts:

  • The islands are home to 58 species of birds from flamingoes to penguins, and 27 different kinds of reptiles, including giant tortoises and a cliff-diving marine iguana.
  • The islands are moving east towards South America at a rate of 3 inches a year.
  • Literary pirate William Dampier visited the islands in 1679 and 1684 and later wrote three best-selling travel books about his travels there.
  • Charles Darwin, who visited the islands in 1835, was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln: February 12, 1809.
  • It's the temperature of the nest that determines the sex of turtle hatchlings--if the nest is too hot, it'll be all females; too cool, all males.
  • Land tortoises can survive more than a year without drinking.
  • Flightless cormorants live here, the only cormorant species in the world that has lost the ability to fly.
  • The Galapagos are oceanic islands that straddle the Equator; they are the only oceanic archipelago in the world that still retains 95 percent of its original biodiversity. As Charles Darwin once wrote, the Galapagos "is a little world within itself."


Happy Traveling!

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting read. Did it go pretty quickly?

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    1. It actually did read fairly fast. Bassett put in a lot of interesting details and facts without ever getting bogged down in boring.

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  2. I will have to turn Kristine onto this. She wants to go there. Sigh......

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  3. Thanks for your kind comments on my book, Galapagos at the Crossroads. The research, field immersion and writing were truly a labor of love on every level. May your journey to "the Enchanted Islands" be peaceful and transformative. No doubt your visit will be eye-opening. -- Carol Ann Bassett, Author
    www.carolannbassett.com

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    1. Thanks so much for stopping by; reading your book made my trip to the Galapagos that much better!

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