Tomás de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama first discovered the Galapagos in 1535 while drifting accidentally off course 800 km as he sailed from Panama to Peru. The Bishop named the Giant tortoises "Galapagos" and as we know the name later changed to Galapagos and therefore was named after this mammal. The first mapped appearance of the Galapagos Islands came in 1574 although the locals are said to have known of them since 1535 by the Indian people of South America.

Galapagos was for the next three centuries invaded by a number of various Pirates who stamped the names of famous English Kings, Captains and high crust Aristocrats on many islands although the islands have also been named after the Spanish also. In 1892 the Ecuadorian government gave their own names to the islands as they have remained to this day.

A good example of the Pirate hideaways is North of James bay known as Buccaneers' cove on Santiago Island.
Sealers and whalers also took to the islands and could travel large distances from and to Galapagos through the capturing of tons of giant Tortoises that could be kept alive up to one year providing an ever ready supply of fresh meat.

Over shadowed in this former darker history was the more famous Sir Charles Darwin in 1835. Over a 5 week sojourn Darwin collected various wildlife, made drawings and carried out much experimentation and samples along with his written expositions that formed the basis of the theory of evolution on earth.

The Spanish further named these islands in the Archipelago Enchanted islands, because they would appear and disappear from view as the ocean mist wrapped itself around them enveloping the view before suddenly coming into view once more.

Loner Patrick Watkins an Irishman was the first man to inhabit the islands on Floreana in 1807, Watkins was marooned and was infamous for providing vegetables to whalers in exchange for Rum for many years until he departed and General José Villamil arrived in 1832. Villamil (An Ecuadorian General) Later founded a penal colony of political prisoners and general criminals who would exchange meat and vegetables with the whalers.

A bizarre chronicle in the history of settlers occurred also at the end of the 1920s when Dr. Friedrich Ritter arrived on the scene complete with mistress and extracted teeth to avoid further do it yourself dental treatment. The second group to settle here were the Wittmers, a family from Cologne.

The final group and the most colorful here were three lovers whom escorted Baroness Von Wagner de Bosquet from Austria everywhere and had plans to construct a grand Luxurious hotel.
During these times the earlier settlers were aghast at the new arrival who later named herself Empress of Floreana, but the story ends in mystery as all of the settlers outside of the mistress Dore Strauch and the Wittmer family began disappearing and dying off along with Dr. Ritter who died of meat poisoning which was equally as strange as he was a vegetarian. The Baroness also disappeared with one of her 3 lovers.

A best seller was actually published in 1961 based around the life of longest surviving settler Margaret Wittmer who died aged 95 in 2000.

The tourist level is actually around 3 times the total of local settlers totaling approximately 22,000 to 26,000. The population is spread mainly in San Cristobal with around 7,000 and Santa Cruz with a further 15,000. On the longest island Floreana there are also around 80 settlers mainly located around Black Beach.
There are 8 main settlement areas in total. The two main navy bases are on Baltra (South Seymour ) and Puerto Baquerizo Moreno which has the second main base of the country.

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