Enchanted Isles

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Day 8 - Our life on the boat would come to an end in the morning. We docked at Santa Cruz.

Our morning, and last excursion would take us to the Darwin Station. The Charles Darwin Research Station was established in 1964. It is a great place to visit, to learn about marine conservation as well as terrestrial conservation. We got to watch a short movie, which featured land and marine critters. Also, the station places emphasis on keeping the Galapagos Islands preserved.

A real treat was seeing Lonesome George. Lonesome George is the last known Pinta Island Tortoise. There are eleven subspecies of Galapagos Tortoises that are native to the islands. George was seen on Pinta Island back in 1971, and it was decided to relocate him for safety reasons since Pinta Island's vegetation had been destroyed by feral goats. Lonesome George is estimated to be around 90 years old.

So far, attempts to mate him have been unsuccessful for decades. On July 21, 2008, Lonesome George had unexpectedly mated with one of his female companions. A total of 13 eggs were collected and placed in incubators. So far, 80% of the eggs showed weight loss indicating they may be infertile. If the other 20% of the eggs hatch successfully, they would not be purebreeds of the Pinta subspecies.

Morning time is the best time to get a great photograph of Lonesome George. I managed to capture a photo of him with his mouth open. He truly is amazing to see!

We saw other tortoise nurseries, the babies ranged in age from 2-5 years old. We saw some Land Iguanas and several Finches.

After our visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station, we would take a ferry to Baltra, to catch our flight back to Quito. The only goofy thing about this trip, was our guide that took us to the Darwin Research Station and back to Baltra Island. My guess is this fellow was in his 70's, his english was hard to understand. On the ferry, he asked us for our passports. We gave him our passports. He left the ferry and caught a ride to Baltra. The seven of us in our group were stranded by the dock, we didn't know what our guide was doing. We decided to stick together and board the bus for a ride back to Baltra.

When we arrived at Baltra, our guide was waiting for us! He had gone ahead of us to get our boarding passes and stamp our passports. He sure didn't make it clear to us - it was pretty amusing, yet a bit challenging for a moment.

We boarded our plane to return to Quito.

Galapagos Islands is truly amazing. I got out of my comfort zone twice: #1 - climbing a ton of rocks; #2 - snorkeling in cold water. Thankful for a heavy wetsuit. I truly understand why Galapagos Islands are sometimes referred to as "Enchanted Isles", because they truly are enchanting!!!

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Photos

Galapagos Tortoises - Dome Shape
These Tortoieses had a "domed" shaped shell. Tortoises can weigh up to 500 pounds, with a shell measuring 59 inches. They can live up to 150 years.

Tortoise - Saddleback Shape
Saddleback tortoises come from Espanola and Pinta Islands.

Lonesome George
Lonesome George relaxing.

Tortoise Eggs
Hopefully, the eggs from Lonesome George and his companion will successfully hatch.

Comments

[Nizamul Islam]

Hatchery and Nursery
I want to do tortoise Hatchery and culture firm in Bangladesh. I needs all information How to do tortoise hatchery and culture firm. pls send all information.