Our first glimpse of the Galápagos Islands from the plane window showed small smudges on the horizon prickling the calm of the Pacific, barely discernible from the bleary merging of sea and sky.
On arrival, the initial impression was bleak. The barren landscape and scrubby vegetation gave little inkling of abundant life. It evolved in quiet isolation, spawning fascinating creatures such as swimming iguanas, equatorial penguins, and centenarian tortoises found nowhere else on Earth.
