The last morning we got up, had breakfast and headed to the Charles Darwin Research Station. Here we are at the sign. I really did not know what to expect. If I had any expectations, it was not what I thought. The population of certain types of torises has struggled to survive recently due to people bringing in species of animals that are not native to the islands. The biggest ones are rats, pigs, and cats. The rats eat the eggs and pigs eat the toirists when they are first born. So, after the eggs are laid in the wild, they bring the eggs here, incubate them, let them grow for 5 years and then release them into the wild. It is a really cool program and they are having huge success. They believe that most of the species of tortoise could support itself in the wild.
This is also where Lonesome George was brought to see if they could get him to breed. He was the last of his species. Sadly, he died last year and was not interested in breeding at all. they have no idea how long he had been alone on the island when they found him. They believe he was not interested in mating or even having other toriteses in his habitat because he had been alone for so long. It was fascinating to hear and learn about.
Here we are at the entrance.
Baby saddle back. George was a saddle back but a different species.
More babies.
They also had bigger toirtises for people to see. The guide said that they come in for a couple of weeks and then back out to the wild. They have a rotation of sorts so that they do not live their entire life in captivity.
All in all it was neat and I am glad that we made it.
After that, it was back to Baltra Isalnd, got to the airport, and flew back to Quito. We went to a small market and shopped a bit, ate dinner, and are now getting showers and watching some TV. Our ride to the airport picks us up at 5 am. Our flight leaves out of Quito Ecuador at 8:15 am Central Time. We fly to Miami and then to Phoenix and are supposed to be in around 6:30 pm at Phoenix.
It has been an amazing week! We did not want to leave the Galapagos. Caleb and Cully were sad.
But, time to head back. Sometime this week, I will try and write a reflection or two on my week and things that I saw as we got to see so much.
I will post tomorrow night when we get back so everyone knows we made it ok.
So, until then...
Grace and Peace
Tera Lynn Childs is the award-winning author of the mythology-based Oh. My. Gods. Cheap Tera Gold and Goddess Boot Camp, the mermaid tales Forgive My Fins, Fins are Forever, and Just for Fins (July 3rd, 2012), and a new trilogy about monster-hunting descendants of Medusa beginning with Sweet Venom and Sweet Shadows.
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