Tortoises, Lava Tubes

Thru my porthole
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Nov. 25, Friday: Today was spent at Darwin Station, in the town of Puerto Ayora.  Darwin Station was the main turtle breeding place.  We had more extensive tour of hatching areas, animal care areas, young animal pens, etc.  There was one turtle that was the last of his kind, called lonesome george.  He was the last of a subtype of Galapagos tortoise that lived on one island and had a different type of shell.  He has steadfastly refused to breed with other closely related turtles.  When we were done looking at turtles we walked back into town, bought souvenir, and found internet cafe to check our e-mail. 

tortoise
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After lunch we boarded a bus which took us up into the highlands of the island where there were wild tortoises.  We were able to view them in their natural habitat.  They were shy, and would pull into their shells and hiss at us if we got too close.  There were lots of them around, eating grass and scrubby plants.  They also liked to wallow in mudholes.  You could get off on a path, and almost imagine you were the first person to see the turtles in the wild- that is until you came out of the woods and spotted the inevitable souvenir store!

Tortoises and More Tortoises!

sea lions on the boat
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We next traveled by bus to a lava tube, this thing was huge, at least 20 ft. diameter.  It was found when some cattle crashed through the roof, their bones are still in the lava tube.  It had been lighted, and access stairs put in.  It was very impressive.  It went on for miles and miles but we didn't go too far in, since there was really nothing much to see, just this big tube.

We also saw flocks of brightly colored finches, they were yellow, black and other colors.  They were quite unafraid and would come quite close.