Oohhhhh I love turtles! Remember that commercial?
Our first day on Galapagos Islands, it was a half day, so we had one snorkel session. The next two days had two snorkel sessions per day. Today was a NON-snorkel day -- I know, we couldn't believe it either! There wasn't any snorkeling scheduled for today, which was a nice break from the cool waters (around 18C).
We travelled to Santz Cruz, the most populated island within the archipelago. Peurto Ayora was the name of the town we visited later on. We visited the Charles Darwin Research Station in the morning to see and learn about giant tortoises and Darwin's studies. They raise the tortoises in these areas when they are babies until they are a certain length and their shells are hard enough withstand any possible attacks. These guys aren't the most quickest ones around, but they're really interesting to look at. They can weigh close to a tonne and live well over 100 years. We had time before lunch to go into town where there were tons of souvenir shops and convenient stores (we bought some drinks and snacks, like chips).
In the afternoon, we visited the highlands where the giant tortoises roam around in the wild. It was a sight to see all these giant tortoises just walking around, and with giant tortoises come giant poop, so we had to be careful where we stepped. We walked through a lava tunnel afterwards, which started off with steep "stairs" (just wood planks) going downwards, then ended with just straight rocks and dirt. There were no lights in there, it was cold, and parts had fresh water there too, giving the whole experience an eerie feeling. Luckily we had our head lamps on and everyone stayed together. Quite the adventure compared to the fast paced tortoises we saw earlier!
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| Lonesome George, the last known tortoise of its species. He's estimated to be around 110 years old. |
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| Land Iguana. |
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| A Finch...not sure what kind. |
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| A volunteer worker at the tortoise farm chopping up their lunch. |
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| A small cactus growing between rocks. |
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| Another unknown finch. |
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| Lobsters for sale at the fish market. We were originally quoted 3/$20 which was the morning time. A few of us from the group went back later that day because we wanted to grab some for the entire group. We ended up getting 12 lobsters (1-2 lbs each) for $50! |
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| Same fish market, where workers were cutting up fresh fish, and pelicans seeing if they were lucky enough to grab a snack. |
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| A tortoise in the highlands. |
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| Barn owl. |
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