The curious top 12 Galapagos Islands facts you should know
Interesting Galapagos stories
The Galapagos’ Baroness Mistery
Get to know one of the most bizarre stories in the Galapagos Islands. It was the 1930s when Friedrich Ritter, a doctor from Berlin, and his lover Dore Strauch left their respective spouses and ventured to live on Floreana Island, looking for the solitude of that enchanted corner. Poco después de su llegada, el Sr. Ritter y Estruch descubrieron por qué fracasaron sus intentos de colonizar Floreana, viendo poca comida y agua. Unfortunately they learned that as a couple they lack much to be compatible. From that moment the previously called "paradise" soon became a complete "hell". Read More...
The History of the Irish Patrick Watkins
This is the History of the Irish Patrick Watkins, he is considered the first person that ever lived in Galapagos, he was abandoned on Floreana Island in 1807 and lived in the wild for 2 years, the storiers says that he introduced citrus to the Galapagos Islands as he dedicated himself to planting vegetables in the upper part of Floreana with the intention to trade with the sailboats that stopped to stock up on fresh water and in exchange for this he received bottles of rum. According to many people he managed to be drunk most of the time he spent in Floreana and most of it he was seen walking along the coast of the island, falling and getting up drunk.
A captain who came 4 years after Patrick, found something interesting to write in his journal and noted that what he was told about him, he had a horrible appearance that somebody can imagine, tattered clothes but enough to cover his nakedness and covered in bugs, a beard, and matted red hair, his sunburned skin, so wild and primitive that it left everyone speechless with dread. As horrible as it might seem he was very cunning that he allegedly ripped off the sailors who landed on the island to work for him, offered rum to leave him drunk and kept them hidden until the ship left without them and then forced them to work for him and make them swear loyalty.
Over time, those men and he managed to steal a boat from a ship and left in the island towards Ecuador mainland, the story becomes even stranger since when they set foot in Guayaquil it was assumed that their traveling companions had died of thirst or he had killed them.
The History of the Pirate James Colnet
In 1793 the pirate James Colnet had the brilliant idea of establishing a communication system on Floreana Island by letters that were deposited in a barrel which was created by the pirates.
The main idea of this communication system was to have news of relatives of pirates or whalers who were in the Galapagos Islands, the system had the objective of bringing news of family members, also to be able to divert or misinform other pirates that were on the way.
The Overluz story, the Iguana Man
This is the story of the “Iguana Man” who was called Overluz. He arrived at Galapagos by accident due to some salty winds into the San Cristóbal Island. Back then there were very few people and he never made a home for himself, as he only walked, fished and ate everything he came across such as iguanas and wolves. He was so exposed to the sun all the time to the sea water, he hardly even bathed because it was not that there was enough fresh water that was in the Junco but that was discovered later.
The Iguana man is fully registered in books, as people in the island believed his main idea was to scare people with his appearance, but in the end all he wanted was to eat, people were very afraid of him. Nobody knows what happened to this unique man as one day he simply disappeared.