Galapagos Day 1

This is Baltra Airport on Isla Baltra, which is the main airport into the Galapagos. Flew from Santiago to Quito the night before, got into out hotel at Quito around 10 pm and had to be up at 3 am to get back to the airport for an early morning flight to Baltra.

We then took a bus, ferry and another bus (around an hour all up) to the Charles Darwin Station on Isla Santa Cruz. This is the biggest settlement on the Galapagos. We then went out to our catamaran, the Grand Odyssey. The rooms are huge – 25 square metres, and you get a panoramic view from the windows.

Up on the top deck are two spa pools, a number of double sun beds and a bar.

Then after lunch we went to the breeding centre for young land tortoises. Here you can see a baby tortoise, not much bigger than the shoots.

Due to introduced species, only 1% of tortoises in the wild make it to 25 (when they can reproduce). 80% die before they are eight years olds. The breeding centres protect them until they are eight, when their carapaces are hard enough to protect them more.

They have a few older tortoises here also, including Lonesome George who was the last of his species and died just two years ago in 2012. It wasn’t all bad for George though as he shared his enclosure with two female tortoises from another species. They tried to mate them, but there were no eggs before he died. However the female tortoises can store his sperm for up to three years so if one of them gives birth in the next year, his species may partially live on.

This is a saddleback tortoise above.

A larger male land dome shape tortoise.

They also breed land iguanas here, to help boost their population. The marine iguanas are plentiful, but not so much the land ones.

This fatter one looks very happy and content. However they are kept in separate enclosures as they can get aggressive and fight.