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We went ashore at Puerto Ayora, the economic hub of the islands, where we went to the Charles Darwin Research Station to see their tortoise breeding program. So many cute tortoises!
There are tortoise species specific to each island, evolved to match the food supply. At the CDRS they breed the tortoises and bring them back to each island when they're old enough to survive on their own.
We got to see Lonesome George, who may be the last Pinta tortoise.
They also had some Galápagos land iguanas.
A few of the naturalists were able to visit their families, which was good to see. The walk to town was fun; I picked up some presents for the family. Then we took a bus to the highlands.
The sugar cane mill was a nice diversion. I quite enjoyed lunch at a highlands restaurant called Altair. They had an owl nesting in a building in their backyard; when I went to photograph it, everyone handed me their camera to take a picture. That was fun, though I learned I don't have a clue how to navigate around manual mode on a Nikon.
The pit craters weren't particularly interesting to me, since I'm not a huge botanist, and the photo opportunities were slim. The walk through the tortoise migratory route was pretty amazing, though, since there were dozens of tortoises, in the wild, along the way.
During that walk we also walked into a lava tube. We also spotted a rare vermillion flycatcher.
We picked up some high schoolers who had won a school contest, and get to ride with us on the ship. They had never been on a boat and have never snorkeled; I learned second hand that most of the locals aren't allowed into most of the national park areas at all (97% of the islands). I do think that showing them what they're preserving will help local conservation efforts.
