9500 ft @ Latitude Zero: Galapagos Day 5: Isla Santa Cruz

Day 5 of our all too short cruise had us going to the Charles Darwin Research Station.

We took the Panga into Puerto Ayora and then walked along a path for a kilometer or so to reach the station. The Darwin Station was established in 1959 in a combined effort with the Galapagos National Park Service to protect the Galapagos Islands and the Galapagos Marine Reserve from further destruction, and to rebuild species brought to the brink of extinction. We were able to learn about the conservation efforts at work all over the islands, and we got to see the Tortoise breeding and rearing project. When all the whalers, buccaneers and settlers who came to the islands realized that not only did one of the giant tortoises contain about 100 plus pounds of meat but they could also live without food or water for almost a year, they began to take thousands of tortoises each year to store aboard their ships. The tortoises could be stacked on top of each other in the cargo bay of the ship, and the sailors could have fresh meat all year long. To make a long story short, 3 of the 12 species of tortoises became extinct, and the rest became endangered. At Darwin Station we saw how they bred the tortoises, incubated the eggs at temperatures which determined whether the hatchling was male or female, and raised the young tortoises until they were 5 years old before releasing them back into the wild. Through these efforts there are once again wild tortoises to be seen on almost every island.

We also got to see Lonesome George, a rather elderly tortoise who was the last tortoise found on the Isla Pinta. He’s the last of his species – to date researchers are still looking for another Pinta Island tortoise all over the world (in zoos, etc), but no luck. The current plan is to mate him with females of a very close species, then mate him with his daughters and then granddaughters, to eventually get a Pinta Island species that is almost 95% pure.

Here George is chasing a much younger female.

Still chasing. He did actually end up catching her, but as Tortoise mating takes about 24 hours to finish, we didn't stick around.

A cute baby turtle.

After the Darwin Station, we had some free time in Puerto Ayora to do a little shopping, and cool off with a cold drink.Then we said good-bye to those who were only doing a 4 day cruise (the Czech couple and Ana and Pepe) and headed back to the boat for lunch. Where we took the time to take photos (maybe it was the fact that we realized the trip was half over..sniff, sniff...and we were getting nostalgic).

Gary, crazy Aussie:

Erik, equally nutty Belgian:

Dee, awesome lady from Britain:

Ohad, really cool Israeli:

I also took some pics of my future beach house:

And a better picture of the really cool pirate boat from last night:

After lunch we met the arriving group of fellow travelers (pics of them later),then we headed off to spend the afternoon at Primicias Ranch, a privately owned ranch not far from Puerto Ayora.