Martin and Sylvia in Japan: Galapagos Day 8: Tortoises on Santa Cruz

We woke up an hour early because Sylvia’s phone decided to sync up to mainland Ecuador time! But we had the boat to ourselves for some reading:

Then we had a day off the boat on Santa Cruz, the most inhabited island of the Galapagos. We took a short bus ride to the Charles Darwin research center, an organization that was started when the Galapagos became a national park in 1959. The relationship between the organization and the Galapagos is really interesting—apparently back in the day, the Research center was really well integrated into local life and everyone hung out. Now, there’s a wider gap between inhabitants and researchers. And there’s a lot of local people who perceive conservation efforts as limiting their own economic opportunities (think: limits on fishing). For instance, there have been big efforts to kill all the goats in the Galapagos but every now and then a disgruntled local will release a few in protest of the conservation efforts, creating a big headache for the naturalists etc.

Biking with a squid

Terrible Darwin pictures continue

The chief attraction of the Charles Darwin research center is their breeding center for saddleback tortoises. Some of these were 120 years old.

Babies

Now came the most hysterical part of the day. There was a tortoise called Lonesome George who was the last from his island. There was a search far and wide to find him a mate, but to no avail. When he died, his species became instinct. At the Charles Darwin Research Center, he has been taxidermied (well he was apparently taxidermied in NYC by a world class taxidermist).

In order to see the preserved lonesome George, we had to wait in an antechamber with air conditioning to cool down lest our body heat melt him.

And here he is, Lonesome George. Above him reads “a symbol of hope.” Which Sylvia didn’t quite understand because he actually represents the extinction of his species but Martin thinks it’s because lonesome George was a call to action for conservationists and people worldwide. Regardless Sylvia couldn’t stop laughing in this bizarre little room of reverence for this tortoise.

Then we got back on the bus and drove up to the highlands of Santa Cruz to see the other kind of tortoise—the domed tortoise. We went to a private farm whose income comes from tourists and they keep their land wild for the tortoises to breed and live. Our bus driver told our naturalist that there’s a lot of competition for keeping the tortoises on your land—farmers are worried about cutting down the guava trees they like for fear the tortoises will go to their competitors.

We had an awesome bbq lunch here before then walking to see the domed shaped tortoises. We had to wear boots to protect us from fire ants. Unfortunately, Sylvia managed to get fire ants IN her boots. Martin shook them all out of her boots like a true gentleman. But then Sylvia was done, so they walked through the lava tube by themselves. In his haste, Martin hit his head hard against the lava. So all in all, we didn’t do too hot in the highlands of Santa Cruz.