January 28th, 2006

SANTA CRUZ
Today was full of a lot of traveling – most of it somewhat confusing. Left the hostel at about 7:30, figured out the three places we were supposed to go to get checked in at the airport, and left at 9:30. The flight made a 40 minute stop in Guayaquil, and then on to Isla Baltra in the Galapagos. On arrival, I fist left my jacket on the airplane – thankfully realized it in time to get it back – and then we finally found our guide, who didn’t have a sign like everyone else, but instead sported a “Yate Poseidon” hat that was supposed to be identification enough. Well, we did eventually find him. Then we waited for a while for the other passengers and for a bus that wasn’t full. From bus to small ferry boat that got us to Santa Cruz, from small ferry boat to another bus across the island, and from there to our boat. Everything got easier from there.
It turns out that Erica and I got the “luxury” room – the only one above deck. After plopping bags and taking a peak around, we headed to the Charles Darwin Station for more wildlife. While waiting for the dingy (“panga”) to get onto the boat, we had already seen bright red crabs, a small iguana, and a sea lion rolling around along the edge of the water near the dock. From the boat we saw a swimming marine iguana and a pelican that was hanging out on the bow of the boat.
Docking at the Charles Darwin Station, we found dozens of marine iguanas sunning themselves. At the station itself, we mostly saw giant tortoises. First our guide gave us a history of how they have been wiped out from several islands and what kinds of recovery efforts are being made. Hatching eggs at the station and raising them for 4 to 5 years was making progress on restoring the population to many islands. However, there is one male at the Charles Darwin Station who refuses to mate (this led to several entertaining stories of efforts to get him to procreate). “Lonesome George” is said to be less than 100 years old (tortoises can live about 200 years, they think) and was the last giant tortoise on Pinta. There are some tortoises that have mated in captivity, and there are many young tortoises who were born at the station after their eggs were collected from the wild (and carefully transported right-side up). They also control the sex of the hatchlings by varying the temperature of the incubators, generally trying for more females.
We caught a glimpse of George, and saw several other male giant tortoises up close. Then, in an effort to avoid annoying people who complained at the inconveniences imposed on them to benefit the animals (such as walking around the feeding pad rather than over it), we headed into town - Puerto Ayora. This is the same town we got off the second bus in. Erica and I were still hungry, having not really eaten a meal all a day, and grabbed some food in town, then made a failed attempt to mail post cards. Then back on the boat for the night, with an overnight sail planned to Floreana.