Tortuga Bay is located on theSanta Cruz Island, about a 20-minute water-taxi ride from the mainwater taxi dock inPuerto Ayora.[1][2] There is also a walking path, which is 1.55 miles (2,490 m) and is open from six in the morning to six in the evening. Visitors must sign in and out at the start of the path with theGalapagos Park Service office. Tortuga Bay has a gigantic, perfectly preserved beach that is forbidden to swimmers and is preserved for the wildlife where manymarine iguanas,galapagos crabs andbirds are seen dotted along thevolcanic rocks. There is a separate cove where you can swim where it is common to viewwhite tip reef sharks[3] swimming in groups and on occasiontiger sharks[4]
There is always a large variety of small fish, birds, including thebrown pelican and giganticgalápagos tortoise. The Galápagos Islands were discovered in 1535, but first appeared on the maps, ofGerardus Mercator andAbraham Ortelius, in about 1570.[5] The islands were named "Insulae de los Galopegos" (Islands of the Tortoises) in reference to the giant tortoises found there.[6][7][nb 1]
^The first navigation chart showing the individual islands was drawn up by the pirateAmbrose Cowley in 1684. He named them after fellow pirates or English noblemen. More recently, the Ecuadorian government gave most of the islands Spanish names. While the Spanish names are official, many researchers continue to use the older English names, particularly as those were the names used when Darwin visited. This article uses the Spanish island names.
^Compagno, L.J.V. (1984).Sharks of the World: An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of Shark Species Known to Date. Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization. pp. 535–538.ISBN92-5-101384-5.
^Pritchard, Peter C. H. (1996).The Galápagos Tortoises: Nomenclatural and Survival Status. Chelonian Research Monographs. Chelonian Research Foundation. p. 17.ISBN978-0965354004.
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