To most people, luxury travel to the Galapagos Islands means spending a week in these remote islands on a large legacy cruise line and crowding in line with a battalion of cruise mates to get a distant look at a blue-footed booby.

For those in the know, however, luxury travel to the Galapagos is best managed through one high-end and extremely hands-on 14-room luxury lodge. It’s a spot that may look like it’s in the in the middle of nowhere but is dead center when it comes to the confluence of evolution, nature, sustainability and pampering.  This is Pikaia Lodge on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos — closer to the pre-Cambrian era than it is to a Starbuck’s or coal-fueled power line.     READ MORE …