Imagine a place so pristine and fragile. You want to take care of it, but your presence is already causing an impact.

That's one way to look at the Galapagos Islands, and it's true whether you're visiting as a tourist or

whether you make your living there as a fisher. Back in 2017 I lived in Quito Ecuador

and dreamed of hopping on a two hourhour flight to the Paltra Airport

to visit this beautiful cluster of islands in the Pacific, home to some of the most unique

marine species in the world.

Sadly, I never got a chance to go. The Galapagos are the source of Darwin's

theory of evolution. They are a living laboratory for scientists to this day.

The islands were first documented by accident in 1535 by the Spanish, and became a hub for pirates who introduced

species that later became plagues, like goats. This is Carolina Los Aleon, a reporter for today's episode.

She's based in Quito.

By the 1830s, as countries in Latin America gain independence, Ecuador annexed the Galapagos as part of their territory.

Because of the harsh conditions in the islands, the Ecuadorian government sent settlers and political prisoners there.

Most famously, British biologist Charles Darwin explored the Galapagos Islands aboard the HMS Beagle in 1835.

Never before had we seen lizards that swam and fed in the open sea.

If these repulsive creatures were indeed unique, in the islands proved to be the result of relatively recent volcanic eruptions,

what profound questions it raised in the mind?

Then European migrants started arriving in the 1920s.

Ecuadorians from the mainland migrated as more services became available as well.

Most of them were interested in nature,

and some were misfits.

There were also people working in tourism.

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