charles darwin research center ....

so, the best thing, to me, about the charles darwin research center on santa cruz island in the galapagos is that they are breeding turtles and then repopulating the islands that have had outside influences hurting the indigenous species ....

we saw eggs in incubators and then newborn turtles .... and turtles a bit more grown up and about ready to be let out in the wild ....

it was our last day touring the galapagos islands, and i bought the first souvenir of the week: a charles darwin research station tshirt ..... now, as i blog from my travel journal, my vacation is long over, but i've worn the tee tons of times ....

from the research station, dora pointed us towards the restaurant where we were to have lunch... and she left us to wander down the main street of the town ... the main tourist street anyway .... and we went in some shops .....

 in most of the stores we went in, we didn't buy much, but had fun looking ....

the road we walked on was right along the ocean .... there was a port for small cruise ships to drop their tourists off at the charles darwin station .... and then more of a local port ....

 there were signs all over the place that said don't fee the wildlife .... but the sealions and pelicans can't read ...... they were going for fish scraps as the fishermen cleaned their day's catch .....

i guess it could have been any fishing port in the world ....

go, diego, go ...

so ... when the folks at the darwin research center in the galapagos realized that they had lonesome george, they put out a call world wide for giant turtles, in the hopes of finding george a mate .... they got lots of turtles ... none the right breed ... but they did get others who could help perpetuate their own breeds .... one was from the san diego zoo ... and he was named diego ... get it?

diego is a turtle originally from espanola ... a supersized breed of galapagos turtles ... but the population was anything but supersized .... there were introduced goats on espanola ... and they were breeding like rabbits ... and all those goats did a number on the turtle population by devouring turtle eggs ... not to mention destroying the vegetation that the turtles needed ....

diego was taken to san diego in the 30s .. and returned to galapagos in the 70s ... when there were only a dozen or so espanola female turtles left ... and two males ... two lackluster males ... there was no breeding going ... for no discernible reason, those turtles were not fulfilling their evolutionary duty to perpetuate their species .... and then diego showed up ... he was introduced to the pen where all the non mating espanola turtles lived .... and just having a new guy around got everyone going ..... apparently it was a competition thing ... and three competitors made things much more interesting than two .... and diego and his two guy buddies have been doing their job ever since .... growing their species substantially ...

goats have been eradicated from espanola and turtles have been reintroduced ... success ... a lovely contrast to the fate of lonesome george's species ....

and .... now ... 40 years later, we visited diego and heard his story at the charles darwin research station on santa cruz in the galapagos .... and what was he doing? .... mating ... and making a big old racket of noise so that everyone knew just exactly what he was doing .... below, you can see diego in an upright position ... not with his belly parallel to the ground ....

at least he was trying to be discrete, hiding in some bushes ... but gosh he was loud!

... turtle time ...

on friday of our trip, we went to the charles darwin research station .... it's an interesting place ... when you read about it on trip advisor or a similar online site, the reviews are so varied .... it is astonishing, interesting, educational and chock full of multiples of all 11 subspecies of galapagos turtles .... but, the reason it gets bad reviews, or mixed reviews, is that it is fairly dilapidated .... outdated .... shabby .... it is not spick and span and sanitized like you'd expect a scientific research center to be ... no white coats, chrome, spit and polish .... just turtles and turtle muck in large old fashion pens .... i left a trip advisor review ... and i said it was awesome .... it exactly served its purpose and educated my children and me about the 15 endemic galapagos turtles .... and the 11 that are left ..... all in spite of being struck by a tsunami recently .... the turtles, luckily, were evacuated well ahead of time because of adequate warning ....

that's a picture of george ... lonesome george .... here's his story .... the island of pinta was well recorded as having loads of giant turtles ... pirates came and toted them away to have fresh meat on their long journeys ... in the early 20th century, it was searched for conservation reasons and not a single turtle was found ....years later, george, a very large turtle was found ... presumably then, the last time the island had been searched he had been tiny .... a baby .... and he grew up alone .... so now he's been alive more than 100 years .... they initially tried publicity to find him a mate ... giant turtles were returned from zoos all over the world .... no luck, the returned turtles weren't from pinta .... they got turtle pets back from natives ... none were from pinta .... none were the right species .... they tried introducing him to females from another species ... ones that seemed most similar to him genetically ... the females laid eggs ... but they were not fertilized ... no babies ... no more little georges .... he's the end of his species ... really a sad tale, right?

tomorrow i'll tell you a happier turtle story ... about diego ...

... we interrupt this travel adventure for a brief moment of total joy ....

on thursday, after our day snorkeling and then lizard spotting at south plazas, we made our way back to the galapagos safari camp by way of a boat ride, a short bus ride, a shorter van ride with our trusty driver jaime .... i'd love to tell you that we all went swimming in the gorgeous pool ... but no ... just sophie made it in .... 

 and she jumped in about 40 times while andy tried to get the perfect photo ....

this one seems like the perfect jump for joy:

dinner on thursday night was a ham and vegetable tower on toast for an appetizer ..... entree was curried chicken with the OH MY most divine risotto and some veggies .... then a wine soaked pear for dessert ... delightful .... the family played cards after dinner .... which surely goes to show that this was the easiest day of the trip ... every other day we ate dinner and couldn't wait to get into bed!! ....

on the navigation to south plazas, sophie and i tried to sit at the bow ... we were getting SOAKED ... we had towels around us as we sprawled on the deck , but between the wind and the spray, it was just too cold .... we held out up there for a long time, but finally gave in and returned to the cabin with everyone else ..... it's one of my favorite memories of the week though, giggling with sophie on the bow of the boat, trying not lose our sunscreen bottle overboard or have our towels fly away 

then, on the way back from south plazas, we did sit on the bow of the boat .... and alejandro sat with us ... and it was gorgeous and perfect .... alejandro was looking for whales.... whale season was just starting ... but no luck that day for us .... no whales .... we sat and chatted with alejandro about being a guide and galapagos stuff .... he asked questions about us and home .... 

 this trip day, a snorkel and an island walk was our easiest day ... not too strenuous ... plenty of interesting and magical though .... you can tell from this picture that we're nearing the end of our trip ... some of us have clothes that aren't matching as well as they did at the beginning of the week ...

swallowtail gulls ......

this swallowtail gull has a hatchling in a tiny cave space under that rock ....

that giant land iguana was walking by and seemed intimidating to the gull mom ......

 she pecked him and flapped and squawked ... he never altered his apparent course ... he was just walking by ... but she was very protective and i'm sure felt better once he'd passed .....

in the picture below, you can just make out the baby, it's outlined in white down ....

and here, elsewhere on the island, there is another swallowtail gull parent with a juvenile .. still downy, but out and about .....

south plazas island ....

south plazas island has prickly pear cacti that are outsized compared to other spots in the galapagos ....

 south plazas has beautiful vistas .....

 south plazas is surrounded by turquoise waters full of sealions and marine iguanas ...

 the south side of south plazas is steep, steep cliffs .... four people have died there on tours ... two of the four were naturalist guides .... our guide told us this laughingly from the edge of the cliff ....

at south plazas, swallowtail gulls swoop and dive near the cliffs, and nest on them ....

 from south plazas, north plazas is a stones throw away ... well ... i couldn't throw a stone that far, but someone could ...

 on south plazas, it's nice to hold hands if you're standing near the high cliffs ....

 on south plazas, you'll lose your hat if you aren't careful ....