Promptly at 3:15, Team Zodiac minus 1 (this time Ellen stays aboard, she’s “turtled” out!), pushed our way onto one of the first zodiacs to the Charles Darwin Research Station. This time, the bus ride is quick, about 3 minutes through town, and we’re at the station entrance. Ivan (our Naturalist, for the first time believe it or not!) walks us the 1km to the station, then gives us an excellent explanation of why its in existence (to save the turtles that were becoming extinct) and how they continue to accept and breed turtles. A lot of the turtles they receive are “hybrids” that were kept as pets, then abandoned or turned over to the center. These mixed breeds will be returned to where they belong and not inter-bred with the pure species.
We then troop off to see if we can find Lonesome George – the famous last turtle of his breed – who won’t mate – no matter what the naturalists at the center try. They’ve tried putting females in with him – no dice – Georgia and Georgina are in the pen with him, but he doesn’t care. They’ve tried to extract his sperm, they’ve tried scientific methods, they even tried putting a TV in his pen that ran videos of other animals mating (animal porn!!!), and again, he wasn’t interested. Poor boy, he’s almost 150 years old and unless something happen soon….well……
Unfortunately, we weren’t as lucky as the morning tours – we saw the girls, but George was sleeping under his favorite tree, so we couldn’t really get a good look at him. We did, however, visit some really big males and females. We were allowed to walk with them, right in their enclosures. Of course, the girls had to have their fun – so out I came – plop – snap – another behemoth way to close for my comfort. But in a way, I’m kind of getting used to these big guys They seem sweet enough, and except for that hissing part, they’re not too bad I guess.
After wandering through the enclosures and looking at more of those blasted land iguanas (ok, ok, I know the research center is doing a great thing breeding, helping species keep their place it he ecostructure and all that, but seriously, we’re all a little iguana’d out right now, you know what I mean?), we visited another enclosure with younger males and females. You wouldn’t believe it! They were doing the dirty! Yep, turtle porn as Mags (#2) put it – and like a bunch of voyeurs, we all stood there gaping. Ed even got it on video! Honestly, have you no shame? The male makes this really odd and embarrassing hissing and groaning sound too – move along people! Give them some privacy!
Tat about ended our stay in the Research Center. Maggi, Richard, Ed and Cathy headed back to town, Michelle, went with Mags (#2) and Barb at a slower pace. The walk was enjoyable, only a little over 1.5 km, along the main road littered with restaurant, shops and interesting local life. We stumbled on a cemetery and waded in for some photos. As we wandered through the shops, Cathy and Ed split off form Maggi and Richard in search of refreshments. They found a great spot on the side of the square at Humani Pizza. We bellied up to the bar and relaxed over 2 huge pilsners. A very fitting end to a great day, a great tour, a great week in the Galapagos islands.
Zodiac ride back to the boat was still bumpy, but fun and sort of sad in a way because it was the last fun ride we’d have – next stop – off the ship for good! Back aboard to the remains of the cookies, frozen drinks and beer/wine at the bar. Showered, freshened up and back to the lounge for one farewell evening. Strange with no briefing for tomorrow as we all got little instruction sheets in our room telling us to have our luggage out in the evening – but by 7 am at the latest – disembarking by 8:30. We did have the Captain and all the staff come to wish us farewell and thank us for joining them (that really broke Maggi up).
We also had a special “surprise” – a slide show of our trip with pictures the Naturalists took throughout the week. Great presentation, beautiful music behind it, fantastic shots of the wildlife and even better shots of the feral tourists, including tons of candid (and not all very flattering shots) of the zodiac 6. It was getting embarrassing there for a while! Obviously Geovanna took he bulk of the photos on the day we toured Espanola and it showed during the show! The ‘surprise” is that we all get a copy of the CD with all the photos the Naturalists took (can’t wait to see Jessica’s photos – all taken from here cell phone!). Another neat surprise is a sign up sheet where everyone can leave their email addresses. The staff will then make copies of it for everyone. Really neat idea!
Wandered down to dinner, almost last ones in, after saying goodbye to all the staff. Langostino and chocolate soufflé (which we almost missed because Diego was handling the table and didn’t know about the soufflé, but Juan came to the rescue), Giovanni, the usual waiter, was sick (sick with a hangover maybe – it was his last night aboard before vacation!!!). As usual, excellent food and service – even though Diego isn’t typically a waiter yet, he did a fantastic job!
There was an evening folkloric show we sort of made it through. Nice enough, band of 5 guys playing native instruments. The real attraction for Cathy and Ed though was after the show when Rogelio, Ivan and Jorge jammed with their guitars to celebrate Ivan’s last night with Celebrity (he was moving to another ship) and Rogelio’s last night before vacation. Ed and Cathy managed to hang in for a few songs – they were having fun and it was nice to see the guys were allowed to celebrate like that. Maggi and Richard went out back and watched more wildlife in the water before retiring sometime after midnight (they think!!!!)
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