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Published: July 11th 2010
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This morning we woke up in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz island to a choppy reception. Apparently there had been a minor earthquake in Asia and the waves we were feeling were the aftershock. Unfortunately the waves were no good for Sophie or Rachel, both feeling a little bit more queasy, Soph having to take pills first thing. We jumped into the Zodiacs for what was meant to be a dry landing, but the boatman had a tough time navigating the big waves, riding on the crest of some, into others, and one giant one crashing down into the boat... filling my waterproof shoes to be poured out later!
We were guided round the Charles Darwin Research Station, exhibiting photos from recent volcanic eruptions, charts and drawings, but the true attraction are the corrals housing adult Galapagos Tortoises including Lonesome George! Lonesome George is about 100 years old (potentially living to 180 years) and is the last surviving Tortoise of Pinta Island. There were 14 species of tortoises in Galapagos, now down to 11 (thanks to pirates and sailors 200 years ago), and George represents the 11th. Despite numerous programs to attempt to mate him with females, introducing females from
other islands, tortoise porn and a Swedish scientist with an arousal agenda, George refuses to mate. Mind you, they still have 80 odd years to get it right!
Free time in the town was spent keeping Sophie away from too many Blue Footed Boobie souvenirs before we headed back to the boat for lunch. The water still choppy not good for the others. The English couple and girls from Denmark had left us this morning so we were expecting new arrivals but they didn't arrive until we were due back on land so there was no opportunity to meet them. We headed into the highlands to see giant tortoises in the wild and were delighted to see these sleepy giants roaming with no limits. A ranch allowed us access to their lands and the tortoises not respecting keep out signs roam free! The ranch housed an empty shell, so heavy to try and lift, but provided lots of entertainment dressing up as teenage mutant ninja turtles! Also on the ranch's grounds we were able to access a lava tube, thousands of years in the making! As lava erupts from volcanoes, the air cools the top layer and the lower
lava burns into the ground, layer after layer effectively creating a naturally formed tunnel. We were able to walk through this surprised at its height and numerous layers for each eruption.
Back on board we met the new group additions, Matt and Lucy from London, Sarah and Laura from Canada and Litisha, a French lady living in Quito. While the waves had died down a little bit, this was definitely not the best welcome most of them wanted. After chatting for a bit, several green faces headed off to bed!
How Sophie Sees It We were faced with choppy waters today and I was feeling a little green, but even worse was that on land it felt as though the ground was moving beneath me and I was extremely disorientated and dizzy. I was praying the waters would calm so that seasickness did not ruin the rest of the trip.
All ills were forgotten at the end of our trip to the "wild Tortoises" (which choose to live on a ranch, whose owners spotted a business opportunity and charge $3 (US) entry per person, for roughly 300 visitors a day, so $320,000 a year just because
they are lucky enough to host our giant friends!) where we tried on an empty shell! Chris mustered up the strength to stand with it on his back, and then Hanzel told me to position myself in the curved part of the underbelly of the shell (you can guess why females have flat shells while males have curved shells underneath!)
Hanzel told us how to differentiate between the old and the young - the young shells have well defined grooves, which smooth out as the animal ages. And the reason species like the Pinta Island tortoise (Lonesome George) are nearly extinct is because sailors and pirates stole the animals as a source of fresh meat on board their long journeys. Tortoises can live a whole year without food or water, so the sailors could keep them without providing for them. They are also deaf so you can sneak up on them easily (not that they are going anywhere fast!)
In the evening Hanzel told the story of how he met his wife, pretty cute. He bumped into her in the street looking for her lost dog. He asked the name of the dog, she replied "Blackie". He asked
what colour Blackie was and she replied, "Black and white." He proposed that if he could guess the colour of Blackie's ears, she would have to go on a date with him. He guessed black.. and he was right. She was amazed and to this day questions him as to how he was so lucky (although, in my book, with a 50:50 chance it wasn't that hard...!). He told us his secret - he learnt from his studies that if a dog (or most mammals I believe) has two colours, the ears will take the darkest colour. For cats with more than 3 colours, if one is gold, the ears will be gold. Or something like that..!
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