We pulled into Puerto Ayora, the main city (and port) on Santa Cruz island, early in the morning, and wow is this harbor busy! We boarded the pangas and headed to shore, where we picked up a bus to the Darwin Research Station, which was only 5 minutes away. Our bus dropped us off a short walk from the entrance, and Kim saw this sign. Since she and Fletcher are both huge Chocoholics, it was appropriate to get a photo.
I found it interesting that they bury their dead above ground, but with the island being volcanic, I guess that makes sense. I almost felt like I was in New Orleans, complete with the overwhelming humidity.
After maybe 200 meters of walking we reached the entrance, which is part of the Galapagos National Park.
I found this sign about plastics in the Galapagos interesting, particularly the hermit crab in a plastic bottle cap. How sad is that?? I didn’t mention it previously, but when we were snorkeling off Bartolome Island we saw several bits of plastic floating in the water, as well as on the beach afterwards. Fletcher didn’t snorkel there so he spent a lot of his time cleaning up the beach rather than relaxing. That’s my boy! The authorities here are doing everything they can to eliminate plastics from the islands.
We all found this cactus interesting…the lower part looks like a tree trunk….I’ve never seen anything quite like it. They look a lot like a Joshua Tree…queue the U2 music!
One of the main projects of the Darwin Research Station is improving the Galapagos Tortoise populations on each of the islands where they exist. They were over-hunted for hundreds of years by sailors and pirates until their numbers were decimated.
Each island has a distinct species of tortoise, so they collect some eggs from each island and then raise them until they are about 5 years old, before releasing them back onto their home island. This gives them a fighting chance at survival, and the project has been hugely successful! You can see this batch of young ones was collected from Floreana Island in 2023, so they’ll be going back home around 2028.
The naturalists love to tell the tale of Lonesome George. By the end of the 19th century the Pinta Island tortoise was thought to be extinct due to over-hunting. The last three tortoises that died on the island were taxidermied and sent to museums. In 1971, Lonesome George was discovered, the last of his kind. He was brought to the Research Station in 1972 where they fruitlessly tried to get him to reproduce with other similar species from other islands. Lonesome George died without reproducing in 2012, the last Pinta Island tortoise. He was taxidermied and put on display for all of us to see, a rather ignominious ending if you ask me. However, where he is on display is air conditioned, so it was worth it for the brief respite!
Inside the visitor center they had this map of the Galapagos Islands, with the equator running across it in red. This is the first time I had seen the equator depicted on a map of the islands. We crossed the equator four times on this trip, not including flights! We spent the first part of day 2 right on top of the equator, what amounts to the mouth of the seahorse shape that is Santa Isabela island.
We jumped back on the bus and headed into the Santa Cruz highlands, where we were planning to see more Galapagos tortoises. On the way, this guy decided to cross the road in front of our bus.
It only took him about a minute to make it across. Just glad he didn’t get hit on the way! I knew this had to be a rarity, as naturalist Bolo said “this made my day!”.
We then pulled into “El Chato 2 Ranch” (not sure where El Chato 1 is), a reserve for Galapagos tortoises. There are literally thousands of them on this reserve. Even though we were maybe 1000′ feet above sea level, it was still fricking hot and humid!
We had a nice lunch here and I had an excellent local beer from the Galapagos called “Reptila” with a marine iguana on the label…an Irish Red. They should definitely have this beer on our yacht…instead of the two crappy lagers they carry. While we were in the dining area Fletcher decided to crawl into this actual tortoise shell for a photo op.
We then had to swap out our shoes for rubber boots, as we were going to be walking amongst a lot of mud and tortoise shit.
Bolo was our guide today and we started off by walking into this lava tube.
It wasn’t long but it was very cool. This spot was apparently a hiding place for pirates back in the day. The locals found a few swords hidden among the rocks. I had my super bright flashlight with me but I couldn’t find squat.
Once we were back out of the lava tube we went tortoise hunting. Here is Christmas Card photo #6! Hell, even the tortoise is smiling at the camera!!
I loved this tortoise who really stuck his neck out for this shot! Bolo explained that this was a male, simply because he is larger. Somebody should tell Lia Thomas about this factoid!
This beautiful bird was in a bush as we walked by. It’s called a Purple Gallinule, a bird that is usually associated with marshes, but the area we are walking around in is muddy enough to be similar to a marsh.
Bolo got a guava off of a tree with a stick and then fed it to this tortoise. He was quite happy with his treat!
As we were exiting the reserve Bolo pointed out these two tortoises mating. Well, it appears the male is mating…the female doesn’t appear to be enjoying the festivities.
We were dropped back off near the downtown area of Puerto Ayora, and Kim spotted this archway that looks like something Antoni Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect, would have made.
Downtown Puerto Ayora is filled with bars and shops selling tourist stuff, like a mini Ensenada, so we stopped for a quick beer and picked up a few t-shirts. I liked the tortoise statue in the middle of town.
It was so overcast at sunset that it really didn’t turn out as colorful as others have been, but the clouds were still beautiful.
