The Galapagos Islands are widely known for being the subject of Charles Darwin’s landmark work, The Origin of Species. Notably, the islands’ fauna display a characteristic known as island gigantism, which is a biological phenomenon whereby the size of animals isolated on an island increases dramatically over generations. The Galapagos Islands first appeared on maps in 1570 when Dominican bishop Fray Tomás de Berlanga mistakenly landed on one of the islands after attempting to sail to Peru to settle a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and his lieutenants after the conquest of the Incan Empire. The islands were mostly forgotten until […]

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Instead of the jungle cruise at Disneyland, consider this: a custom-built trip to the Amazon is far more luxurious than one might think. The city of Manaus is only 5,200 air miles from Seattle. From Manaus, riverboats sail nearly a thousand miles downstream to Belem, a four-day journey, or upstream 1,200 miles to Iquitos, Peru, which takes a week or so. Sailing the Amazon is part of the undeniable appeal of the river. The closest town to Manaus is Itacoatiara- a coastal town famous for its surfing, bodyboarding, and bodysurfing- which is 124 miles downstream. In a post on his […]

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