You say trutle, I say tortoise

Last night we were on the open ocean, unprotected from the islands, sailing from Punto Moreno back to Santa Cruz this morning. The rocking of the ship tends to put me to sleep; however, the majority of guests were sick all night. One couple from Israel got so violently ill that they disembarked today and will be spending the night in a hotel. We set anchor in Academy Bay (Puerto Ayora), spending today and tomorrow morning visiting sites on Santa Cruz.

This morning we went to the Charles Darwin Research Station. It is a biological research station operated by the Charles Darwin Foundation which was founded in 1959 under the auspice of UNESCO. We were there to visit the giant tortoises, specifically. The facility manages a tortoise breeding program to increase their population. To do that, they wait until wild females lay their eggs, then they dig them up and haul them to the incubator. The sex of a tortoise is dependent on the temperature of their incubation location. Eggs that grow at 29 degrees Celsius and less become male tortoises, while eggs that marinate in temperatures greater than 29 degrees Celsius hatch female tortoises. Because the sex can be easily controlled, the breeders ensure that about 70% of all tortoises hatched are female. We saw year-old hatchlings, then bigger and bigger ones, until we came upon the oldest tortoises that are there for breeding purposes. Some are over 100 years old. The ones that we saw are saddleback turtles, named for the shape of their shell. The front of the shell has a high arch curving at the front of the shell, which provides the space for the tortoise to use its very long neck to reach vegetation that’s growing above it. Theoretically, this is why the cacti have evolved to continually grow tall; the tortoises eat the leaves, so a taller cactus can protect itself.

We walked back into town and shopped, after our excursion to see the tortoises. By the way, if you’re wondering why “tortoise” and not “turtle,” they really are different. Although all tortoises are turtles,not all tortoises are turtles. Tortoises are land dwellers, while turtles that are not tortoises are aquatic. Tortoises have prehistoric-looking limbs, similar to an elephant, but turtles have flippers. And, tortoises are vegetarian, while their aquatic relatives are omnivorous.

In the afternoon, we traveled by minibus to El Chato Ranch, in the highlands of Santa Cruz Island. Here we got up close with more giant tortoises but a different species. Because they live in the highlands, where there is constant moisture and an abundance of vegetation, they have no need to raise their heads to find food above them. All of their food is on the ground, so their shells are round, with no room for the neck to extend so far upward. The Ranch is actually private land that backs up to the national park. The owners allow access to the animals, as long as you stay on the designated paths. We meandered through the property, watching the tortoises, eat, sleep, and take mud baths. Apparently sitting in a bath of mud is attractive to them. Some of them had big clumps of mud left on their shells, following their recent spa treatment.

In addition to the tortoises, the Ranch also sits on lava tubes. There are caves, where the top layer of lava dried quickly, while lava continued to flow underneath. The process creates lava tunnels that you can walk through. Underneath, the stone ceiling looked much different than the elongated stones that “flowed” below the top of the tunnel.

We returned it the boat for dinner and a farewell cocktail, dinner, and cake. We collected everyone’s email addresses, in order to share photos later. Michelle, from Belgium, had a big telephoto lens, so I’m looking forward to seeing what she was able to capture. At the Ranch, I pointed her toward a beautiful yellow and red finch. She later showed me a photo that included a worm in its beak. There’s always something fascinating happening in the Galápagos.Read more