Cecilia Fryder, age 12, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for her question:

Where are the Galapagos Islands?

This little cluster of famous islands is a long way south and to the west of Philadelphia. You could take a plane flight to Ecuador. Or you could take a boat down our eastern shores, across the Gulf of Mexico and into the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean. There you sail south past Colombia to Ecuador. From the shores of Ecuador you could sail or fly westward for about 650 miles. This last stage of the long journey would bring you to the Galapagos Islands.

There are nine main islands, about 50 islets and an assortment of reefs, all made of volcanic lavas erupted ages ago from the bed of the Pacific Ocean. The scattered cluster of land and water is about 200 miles wide and it straddles the equator. Here the tropical climate is cooled by moist sea breezes and by the cold Humboldt ocean current. The Galapagos Islands are home to about 3,000 persons. May scientists make frequent visits to study the assortment of strange animals found there and nowhere else in the world.