Sorry!

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Sorry, I've been amiss in making entries. Have been busy and internet is terrible here.

Day 4
First day on Isabela Island, the largest in the archipelago, and one of the youngest islands, less than a million years old. Today was less boating, more driving... Got off in the harbour to drive to the Wall of Tears, a depressing prison camp where the convicts where dumped on the island and forced to build their own prison out of lava rocks. Fun. Sadly, the route was closed due to a 'tortoise incident'- a tour bus accidentally ran over one of the tortoises, so the route had just been changed to pedestrian only. So, we went to the Sierra Negra volcano crater first, a semi-active crater, and the second largest crater in the world. Isabela's an inhabited island so we passed so farms on the drive, and our guide mentioned some of the big invasive species they are having issues with... Along with more tropical things like guava trees, they have a lot of invasive... Blackberries and morning glory! Sounds EXACTLY like Victoria. Only in Victoria it would more likely have been a deer accident that shut the road down. Short walk to the summit, saw lots of Darwin's finches and Galapagos mockingbirds, as well as short billed annies (invasive species, boooo). Almost the minute we reached the top, we realized a massive cloud-bank was creeping in around us. Had time to take some pictures, and perhaps than fifteen minutes later, as the next tour group reached the top and we prepared to walk down again, the view was entirely covered in fog. Good thing we didn't go to the wall of tears first! Packed lunch eaten at the bottom, we continued on in the private bus. Stopped for a few minutes to take some pictures of a old rock quarry that had been converted into a flamingo lagoon, and watched some lava lizards dart past on the way to the tortoise breeding centre. Small museum with info on Galapagos tortoise life cycle, a bit of history. They are largely endangered as a result of their popularity with sailors... They stop by the Galapagos islands and sail out with dozens to hundreds of giant tortoises, that would survive stacked up in the hold for months without food for water, providing a good source of fresh meat. The invasive rats and feral dogs and cats that eat their eggs and young don't help matters much, either. Then we saw a number of pens with tortoises of varying sizes and ages. Except for the fully adult breeding tortoises, they are kept at the centre until age five, old enough to withstand predation. We saw some tiny ones smaller than my hand, and some very large adults, and varying ones in between. Quite a lot, some wandering around the enclosures, eating (omnomnom), sleeping, etc. Saw a few engaging in, as our guide euphemistically put it, "happy times". Trying to, anyway... It's hard for a hundred plus pound tortoise to clamber onto another. Bit awkward to watch, so we grabbed some ice cream instead. Went to the blocked off road to the Wall of Tears. It's a long, unshaded walk. Felt a little wobbly still, so I waited in the shade while the rest of the group went on. One came back to get me to go see a wild tortoise asleep by the side of the road about 200 metres up, so I went that far, and then came back again. The rest joined me a little while later. They'd seen two more tortoises, but reported the dramatically named Wall of Tears wasn't particularly impressive, so didn't miss much. Stopped at a bar for an hour or two before going back to the boat. Got to check my email very quickly, but Wifi was very bad. Good blackberry juice, though. That was the end of the day, and back to the boat.

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