Galapagos

Sunset on Isabela.

The tortuga gigante.  This one was at least 80 years old.

Sea lions!!

A land Iguana eating  cacti. They aren't usually seen eating. We got lucky.

Marin Iguanas soaking up the sun.

Land iguana soaking up the sun.

Charles Darwin developed his theory of the Origin of Species while on the Galapagos Islands.  Stepping onto these islands is like stepping back in time.  The animals here were not introduced to humans until rather recently in evolutionary terms, so they don't have an instinct to run from us.  This makes the islands like a zoo without borders.  I was expecting tourism on these islands, but I was surprised to see just how limited it was.  Most of the islands are completely off limits.  Ecuador is doing a great job preserving their amazing national treasure.  This is extremely important, because there aren't many places in the world like this. It is difficult to support tourism on such beautiful islands without destroying them in the process, yet in the Galapagos it is managed extremely well.  I didn’t think there were not many tourists, because the entire time I was comparing them to the Hawaiian Islands.  Both sets of islands are volcanic and have amazing ecosystems, but Hawaii has completely developed cities with skyscrapers.  Also, as far as I know there is no limit on moving to Hawaii.  Here on these islands the government knows exactly how long I would be there.  Consequently, they would come looking for me if I wasn’t on my scheduled flight back.  Even the residents of the islands are not allowed to stay if they are not working.  In today’s globalized, overpopulated world, it is amazing that only 20,000 people live on these islands. We were not overcrowded with people, as we would have been on Hawaii. 
I was surprised though to see that the majority of the tourists were not from the United States. Most were from Germany or the UK.  Another surprising thing was that all of the owners spoke English.  Some of the storeowners spoke four or five languages, but their best language other than Spanish was English.  English connected everyone on the island.  For example, I saw a German man speaking English with an Ecuadorian, and they were laughing and making jokes.  It was a cluster of cultures, using English as the common language. America has such a huge influence on the world that our imperialistic globalization is connecting everyone. The United Sates has such a large impact that these countries don’t have a choice not to speak English.  The U.S. has influence in every country of the world somehow, so it is inevitable that English has connected these countries. Though English may be “forced” on some cultures, it is connecting them to the entire world when they learn it. This is the best example of globalization I have seen yet.