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Monday, March 26th - Darwin Station |
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Galapagos Islands March 23rd To April 1, 2007 |
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Today was a lot of work, but we saw a lot of things! |
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We woke up to find ourselves in Puerto Ayora, the largest town in the Galapagos Islands (around 15,000 people) on the island of Santa Cruz. We took a walk up to the Charles Darwin Research Station, the center of all of the Galapagos Islands. Along the way, we had an interesting hands-on experiment with nature. One of the plants, a muyuyo (sp?) was one that supposedly had medicinal value, so we tried it out on some poison ivy that Kristen had and it worked wonders! |
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The Research Station is an amazing success story, bringing back the Islands’ tortoise and land iguanas population from the edge of extinction. We even got to see Lonesome George, the last remaining tortoise from the island of Pinta. Not only is he an impressive tortoise, but the story of how he was discovered after his species was declared extinct is equally neat. And what is probably neatest is that as they are trying to breed him with the genetically closest species, they have lots of time. He’s probably around ninety years old, but probably still has another seventy years to live! |
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The Research Center has juvenile tortoises from each of the islands to raise them in safety away from predators. One neat thing about this area was that you were able to see the physical differences between the tortoises from the different islands. |
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Lonesome George, the sole surviving tortoise from the island of Pinta. He was found in 1971 and is estimated to be around 70 or 80 years old. He is expected to live as long as 120 to 200 years, so it is hoped that researchers will be able to find a way to artificially inseminate. |
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After leaving the Station, we took a bus up into the highlands for a walk through the woods where we got to see some tortoises in the wild. Saw five of them, three males and two females. The females were impressive enough, but the males were HUGH, around five or six hundred pounds! Not sure which was neater to experience first-hand – feeding one of the males some passion fruit or literally stumbling across a pair mating (you’d never think it, but they’re quite noisy!) |
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We stopped for a delicious lunch and some relaxation (see above) in the highlands before continuing on our way. The first stop was a brief stopover to explore a lava tube. This was a tube that lava had flowed through thousands of years ago. The outer layers cooled off first, creating a shell that a modern train could easily go through. Then, the lava simply ran out, leaving the lava tube behind (see pictures below). |
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We then drove about 20 minutes to see two massive sinkholes that were left when the ground collapsed around a bubble left by lava. The sinkholes were impressive, but the main thing we were searching for was a beautiful small red bird called a vermillion flycatcher (see picture in top-left corner of each webpage). There were times when I started to wonder if we were in a place like Disney’s Jungle Cruise where there are no animals, but lots of stereo speakers broadcasting animal sounds. We finally spotted one of the flycatchers – exquisitely beautiful and well worth the effort. Unfortunately for Kathie’s mom, Sharon, she didn’t get a good look at it, which was too bad because she is an amateur (yet avid) bird-watcher. |
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We took a break at a local bakery for some delicious cinnamon and chocolate breads before heading on to the Santa Cruz recycling station. Even though you don’t normally think of going to a recycling station on a cruise like this, it actually did fit in with the conservation theme of the trip (especially since International Expeditions donates money to this project. What’s especially impressive is that approximately 40% of the island’s garbage is recycled. This is especially important if you consider that the entire island is rock made from lava. This rock is extremely porous, so what ever liquids you simply dump out will quickly make it to the water source the people and livestock need to survive! |
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Notice the “crowd” gathering around the local’s fish processing area on the docks. |
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We ended the day off back in Puerto Ayoro for an hour or so of shopping in the port area. The port area is quite nice, with most of the streets and sidewalks covered with paving stones created by the island’s recycling efforts! By 5:30, we were all back on the boat, relating stories of another wonderful day.
Checking out our shopping loot with Victoria’s friends John and Kate →
Tomorrow: Santiago Island and Bartolomé Island |
