Day 71 19.09.15
New hotel, new breakfast, pancakes!
After a different start to the day we made our way along to the Charles Darwin Research Centre.
Along the way we saw very artsy sculptures such as this Gaudi looking arch.
We also passed a little cemetery in the style of similar ones I have seen in Central America before.
We walked up a winding road and I thought this little wooden sculpture outside a clothing shop was quite cool.
We passed the national park of Galapagos own private port and moved along.
We reached the actual Research Station, however found out that the station was pretty much under construction and not really visitable.
There were several plants local to the Galapagos that were being grown here. They plant them in order to show the locals that the local plants too can look great and have great colours. It has been customary to grow plants and flowers with large petals and diverse colours, such as the Bougainvillea, or roses or large gerberas.
We got to see a little Galapagos Bonsai, which at this moment wasn’t actually in blossom.
But there was also a beautiful tree with loads of yellow flowers, a local Muyuyo.
We found a statue of Darwin and instantly went into photo frenzy. A lot of people think that Darwin went to the Galapagos when he was old with a long beard, but he actually visited when he was really young. 20 years old I think.
We headed on to see the turtles. There is a whole story about the different turtles that are on the brink of extinction, for example the story of Lonesome George. He was the last of his kind and was taken from this natural habitat, brought to the Research Centre to be bread and to save his kind. Since unfortunately he was the only animal of his species, the population couldn’t be saved. The problem with cross-breading to at least save some of the genes, is that the turtles shells come in the way. Some shells come down to low over the back part of the turtle and with that in the way for males to reproduce. Several females were placed with him but he never managed to reproduce with them. That is why he is called Lonesome George. He passed away and is now being stuffed (taxidermy), in order to be shipped around the world to be used in presentations to then return to the research centre.
Now the word taxidermy brings up a whole nother piece of laughter provided this trip. If you go to google and type in “bad taxidermy” the images it produces are just hilarious! I understand that it is a special kind of humour, but it kept us going for several dinners.
We carried on to another enclosure where Diego the turtle was having a great time. He is a turtle who has come in to save his species. When there was a volcanic eruption, as a safety measure 2 males and 14 females were removed by helicopter from the area where they lived to be able to keep them in safety, in order to preserve the species. To be able to not produce too much offspring from the same fathers, another male was introduced into the “herd” brought in from a zoo from far away; this guy is Diego.
When the volcanic eruption had seceded, the population was reintroduced and is now living happily ever after. Just Diego is kept in the research centre with a couple of females to keep the population of the region strong and healthy.
We saw a couple of beautiful golden coloured land iguanas.
We got to observe little finches working on a cactus.
There were more turtles in the enclosures but we moved on, knowing that we would see more during the afternoon.
We headed back and then hopped onto a bus to drive to the highlands to see a farm where thousands of giant turtles were roaming about. Even on our way, there were already so many turtles just chilling on the mountainsides.
The ride there was extreme to say the least. A couple of us girls were sitting on the back seats and as soon as we hit the off road things turned worse. The bumps catapulted us around, so there was nothing else to do than sit hugging ourselves trying to protect our chests from moving around. Ouch!
Before we reached the farm we stopped over at a little cave to see special owls that live there, a true predator of the Galapagos Islands. We saw one, but didn’t take any photos inside, cause I know that my camera would have flashed and scared the owl or not flashed and not actually have made a photo where you can see anything on. So all I have is the entry to the cave.
We got to the farm and started our little journey around in rubber boots to find them. Its great when you wear rubber boots and don’t have to think about cleaning them up, you turn into a little kid jumping into the mud and if there had had been puddles I would have jumped into them too! :)
They were really large, cone shaped and munching about on grass literally everywhere.
The difference between the saddlebacks and the rounded turtles is that the saddlebacks have an elongated shell that is raised up in order to leave enough room for them to raise their heads to eat of trees and little shrubs. The cone shaped turtles don’t have this raised shell, as they eat plainly on the ground.
We moved down to a little pond, where the turtles like to go swimming.
It is quite special as due to vegetation living on it, the pond is completely red.
Little ducks were swimming around, even a mother duck with her little chicks.
Proof that the turtles go swimming here too:
After the farm we got out of the rubber boots and headed on to a different farm for lunch. This farm supports the community by providing reforestation, growing vegetables and fruit for the community and providing English and music lessons, pretty much everything that is not provided by the normal schools.
We had some delicious soup, some pasta with mushrooms and some tree tomato juice.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel. Now it was time to relax. While the others headed to the beach, I decided to stay back and write on my blog.
Everyone came back and we went for our farewell dinner on the islands.
They had several funny signs posted everywhere around the restaurant, but I thought this one stood out especially!
We had some vegetable soup I think, and as a main I had some tuna with a seafood sauce and fries. It was all right but the funniest part of the meal was the cocktail I ordered.
I ordered a Bloody Mary. We waited for a while and were then told that they were just on the way to get some tomato juice. We got more and more suspicious about our cocktails and when they arrived we knew our gut feeling had been right. I think it was the worst cocktail of my life. It must have been made of freshly squeezed tree tomatoes, additionally it was super salty and instead of tasting good it was just a sour and salty mess.
During dinner a large event was being set up where different dances were presented and musicians were able to perform. We later found out that the concert was part of the music school of the farm that supports the community we had been for lunch for.
It was quite fun, but after watching a while I headed off for another last Caipirinha on the island before leaving the next day back to Quito.
