CELTA Galapagos:
CELTA Galapagos provides a four-week Cambridge CELTA (Certificate of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Galapagos Islands. Our CELTA centre is located in the town of Puerto Ayora on the most populated island of Santa Cruz.
Located off the coast of Ecuador in South America, the Galapagos Islands form a biological marine reserve that is world-famous for its unique flora and fauna – famous examples being the giant tortoise, the marine iguana and the blue-footed booby.
People have visited the Galapagos for many years to enjoy its stunning and remote natural environment. Few, however, have the opportunity to give something back to this protected archipelago of volcanic islands – the so-called ‘land of craters’ as it was described by the naturalist Charles Darwin.
This is where our new CELTA course on Isla Santa Cruz changes things. For the first time, teacher trainees can qualify to become English teachers, and then go on to participate in important sustainable development and environmental protection projects.
The marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) is an iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands that has the ability, unique among modern lizards, to forage in the sea, making it a marine reptile.
The iguana can dive over 9 m (30 ft) into the water. It has spread to all the islands in the archipelago, and is sometimes called the Galápagos marine iguana.
It mainly lives on the rocky Galápagos shore to warm from the comparably cold water, but can also be spotted in marshes and mangrove beaches.
Giant Tortoise:
This phenomenon of excessive growth is known as islands gigantism or insular gigantism. It occurs when the size of the animals (especially reptiles) that are isolated on an islands increases dramatically in comparison to their mainland relatives.
This is due to several factors such as relaxed predation pressure, competitive release, or as an adaptation to increased environmental fluctuations on islands