Island-Hopping in the Galápagos

High atop El Panecillo hill, a tall statue of the Virgin Mary smiles over Quito’s gleaming baroque churches and huddled roofs. Between cobbled squares and steep hillsides, Ecuador’s traditional mountain culture still thrives here: pre-Columbian treasures fill the city’s museums, chefs put modern spins on ancient ingredients and venerable market traders are always ready with the perfect, sage-scented remedy.

Although merely a few hundreds of miles from the mainland, the Galapagos Islands may feel even further away in reality; modern life has largely skirted this group of volcanic, windswept pearls, still every bit as wild and wondrous as when Charles Darwin set foot here in the 1830s.

The wildlife he observed so carefully is still the main draw of any adventure here. Colorful Sally Lightfoot crabs and lumbering iguanas, curious boobies and a score of famous finches: many of them are found nowhere else, highly adapted to life on these lonely, elemental islands.

Every day brings new encounters as you sail between San Cristobal, Santa Cruz, Isabela and a handful of smaller isles: snorkel through shoals of colorful fish, spot fantastical birds on a hike through the ferns, or ponder the mysteries of evolution as you gaze into the century-old eyes of a giant tortoise.