A brief synopsis of post-Spanish activities in the Galapagos will here be included since the prehistory of the islands may be better appreciated against the background of known historic events.

The group was visited for the first time by Europeans in 1535, when a ship carrying the Bishop of Panama, Tomás de Berlanga, was helplessly caught by the offshore current while sailing southwards along the mainland coast bound for Peru. In the area where El Niño and the Humboldt Current join forces Berlanga's sailing vessel was caught in a 6-day lull and immediately started a rapid drift away from the coast. After drifting helplessly in the doldrums for 10 days the vessel came in sight of an island on the 10th day of March. In a subsequent report from Tomás de Berlanga to the Emperor of Spain, dated the 26th of April, 1535, the Bishop speaks of the futile search for water on this newly discovered island where the ship's crew encountered strange iguanas resembling serpents and tortoises so large that each one could carry a man on its back.