The Galapagos Islands: Natural Evolution

Hi there, for those of you who don't know me, I'm João Petersen, the adventure travel blogger behind "The Portuguese Traveler".

I aim to explore unusual places and share my experiences through engaging writing and photography. After writing about Switzerland, I'm now creating the most comprehensive guide to Ecuador. My main photography focus is landscapes, nature, and adventure.

A summary of my background. I studied Architecture at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, a course I finished in 2015. I did Erasmus in 2013/2014 in Austria and in 2015 I went to work in Istanbul and later in Zurich, Switzerland.

There I started to gain a taste for traveling on weekends and in 2018 I decided to do a Gap Half-Year and traveled around Southeast Asia and Latin America on my own, later creating my blog The Portuguese Traveler. At Christmas 2019 I traveled to Mexico and Guatemala and during Covid, I perfected my (self-taught) skills as a photographer, videographer, blogger, and all that entails, bought all my photography and video equipment and decided to leave Switzerland as soon as Covid was over.

I chose Ecuador as the blog's first main destination because it is little known and has so many different ecosystems in such a small area, so I went there in 2022 for half a year to explore the whole country. I returned, in March 2023, to continue the work I'd done, and in 2024 I started exploring Portugal from one end to the other.

In 2024 I was also a Trip Leader to Peru for the first time and took a group of Portuguese to discover this Andean pearl with one of the most famous wonders of the world.

I hope you enjoy my guide and if you have any doubts or suggestions don't hesitate to contact me.

Warm greetings, João