This colorful tree in Puerto Ayora, the largest town on the Islands (12,000 population) caught my eye for the colorful flowers against the azure sky. These are imported tress; Galápagos native plants generally feature small flowers with yellow and white being the predominant color. Like all non-native plants and animals, introduced species threaten to crowd out the native species. Though attractive, this bright splash of color is very much out of place, an “improvement” that someone has imposed upon nature’s design. In somewhat the same way, I contribute to the rape of nature by starting our journey with this image which may conjure visions of tropical paradise, but which do not represent the reality of most of the Galápagos Islands.

But, now that I hopefully have your attention, we’ll move on.