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Our Year of Adventure
We were having a whole day on land today and to ensure we weren't going to miss out on a meal, we prepared our own lunch box after breakfast. The dinghy had us on the public dock at 8am and it was no surprise to see sealions and penguins there.
We boarded a bus to take us to a Giant Tortoise breeding centre. The centre had 931 tortoises from the newly born to older couples kept for breeding. The tortoises are kept in the centre for 8 years before being released to wild, an age when their shell has hardened and they are not so vulnerable to introduced animals on the islands like cats and dogs.
It was feeding day today and the foliage that had been collected in the highlands was being thrown into their enclosures causing a bit of a frenzy. Well, as much of a frenzy as a slow moving tortoises can make. The young ones were climbing over each other to try and get to the food, one was even trying to climb into the neighboring enclosure before food was put into it's own one.
A young tortoise was rolled over onto it's back shortly before feeding and was struggling to get back over. Apparently it's not so bad for young ones but dangerous for the older ones. Fortunately, with a few of it's buddies scrambling around it, it managed to get itself righted in time to get some food.
We were shown the monthly stages from egg to birth in test tube bottles - they are in the egg for 4 months before hatching and digging their way out. The nests are without food or water so the hatchlings have to survive on the reserves before getting out about a month later. The staff were kept busy with new arrivals, 183 babies were born in May alone.
Donatello was then brought out for us, he was only a little, 5 month old baby. It was hard to imagine him growing to be a giant and living for another 100 or so years. The age of a tortoise can be worked out by counting the rings on it's shell (much like a tree) until it's about sixty.
They also had a special enclosure for the Flat Saddleback tortoises. Instead of having the normal rounded shell, these tortoises, as the name suggests, have a flat, almost concave, saddle shaped shell. Their shells also had unusual cracks and chips because they had been rescued from eruption of volcano in 1998. The centre managed to save 18 of them, the rest succumbed to the lava. Fortunately the saved tortoises are fertile and able to breed.
Afterwards we drove up to highlands to tramp up to the Sierra Negra volcano crater, the 2nd largest crater in the world. It started raining as we neared the car park and cloud was so low there was almost no visibility looking either up or down the volcano. Four of us plus guide decided to walk up the view point regardless. It was supposed to be a 30 minute walk up but because the track was almost ankle deep in mud, it took a little longer. We saw a little mouse on the way up which was maybe the endangered rice rat. At the top there was no view, just cloud. Still, we can say we have been at the top of the second largest crater in the world even if we couldn't see it.
The afternoon was given over as free time, so after quickly eating our lunch and washing it down with a cold beer, we went to rent bikes with Xavier. The three of us decided to cycle out to the Wall of Tears which was only 5km away from the town. It was a well marked tourist route with signs along the way pointing out various attractions. The first we came across was a lagoon which had a flock of flamingos in it, finally we saw more than one at a time!!
A little further down the road we came across our first 'giant' giant tortoise in the wild, it was much bigger than the previous ones we had seen in wild. We saw another half way to the Wall and a third, right on the entrance path to the Wall.
The Wall of Tears is just a wall that was built without purpose other than to punish prisoners by making them do a bit of hard labor. It was built 25 metres high, stone by stone and caused 1,000s of deaths during its construction.
On the way back, we stopped and climbed up the view point. It gave views of Sierra Negra (it was still in the clouds) and back towards the coast. Back on the bikes and racing down the hill, we sped past another giant tortoise which was actually on the road.
A quick stop in the mangrove forest had us nearly tripping over a couple of huge marine iguanas, we are getting so used to them now, we hardly notice them.
The last stop before getting back into town was a lava tunnel by the beach. The tide was in though so we weren't able to walk through any of it. After a short ride along the edge of beach, we were back at the rental shop. We managed to get back within 2 hours and at $2USD per hour we were all happy.
We bought some ice creams and beer and sat on the beach for while before our 4pm walk back to the dock. There were some really friendly sea lions in the dock that were happily playing with those who ventured into the water.
Back on boat, there was slices of pizza and fresh fruit juice waiting for us, to see us through until dinner. The crew took our muddy shoes away for cleaning and then drying in the engine room.
After dinner, everyone decided to go early to bed, the boat is going to set sail at 1am to Floreana so it's best to get a few hours sleep before, in case it's rough.
We boarded a bus to take us to a Giant Tortoise breeding centre. The centre had 931 tortoises from the newly born to older couples kept for breeding. The tortoises are kept in the centre for 8 years before being released to wild, an age when their shell has hardened and they are not so vulnerable to introduced animals on the islands like cats and dogs.
It was feeding day today and the foliage that had been collected in the highlands was being thrown into their enclosures causing a bit of a frenzy. Well, as much of a frenzy as a slow moving tortoises can make. The young ones were climbing over each other to try and get to the food, one was even trying to climb into the neighboring enclosure before food was put into it's own one.
A young tortoise was rolled over onto it's back shortly before feeding and was struggling to get back over. Apparently it's not so bad for young ones but dangerous for the older ones. Fortunately, with a few of it's buddies scrambling around it, it managed to get itself righted in time to get some food.
We were shown the monthly stages from egg to birth in test tube bottles - they are in the egg for 4 months before hatching and digging their way out. The nests are without food or water so the hatchlings have to survive on the reserves before getting out about a month later. The staff were kept busy with new arrivals, 183 babies were born in May alone.
Donatello was then brought out for us, he was only a little, 5 month old baby. It was hard to imagine him growing to be a giant and living for another 100 or so years. The age of a tortoise can be worked out by counting the rings on it's shell (much like a tree) until it's about sixty.
They also had a special enclosure for the Flat Saddleback tortoises. Instead of having the normal rounded shell, these tortoises, as the name suggests, have a flat, almost concave, saddle shaped shell. Their shells also had unusual cracks and chips because they had been rescued from eruption of volcano in 1998. The centre managed to save 18 of them, the rest succumbed to the lava. Fortunately the saved tortoises are fertile and able to breed.
Afterwards we drove up to highlands to tramp up to the Sierra Negra volcano crater, the 2nd largest crater in the world. It started raining as we neared the car park and cloud was so low there was almost no visibility looking either up or down the volcano. Four of us plus guide decided to walk up the view point regardless. It was supposed to be a 30 minute walk up but because the track was almost ankle deep in mud, it took a little longer. We saw a little mouse on the way up which was maybe the endangered rice rat. At the top there was no view, just cloud. Still, we can say we have been at the top of the second largest crater in the world even if we couldn't see it.
The afternoon was given over as free time, so after quickly eating our lunch and washing it down with a cold beer, we went to rent bikes with Xavier. The three of us decided to cycle out to the Wall of Tears which was only 5km away from the town. It was a well marked tourist route with signs along the way pointing out various attractions. The first we came across was a lagoon which had a flock of flamingos in it, finally we saw more than one at a time!!
A little further down the road we came across our first 'giant' giant tortoise in the wild, it was much bigger than the previous ones we had seen in wild. We saw another half way to the Wall and a third, right on the entrance path to the Wall.
The Wall of Tears is just a wall that was built without purpose other than to punish prisoners by making them do a bit of hard labor. It was built 25 metres high, stone by stone and caused 1,000s of deaths during its construction.
On the way back, we stopped and climbed up the view point. It gave views of Sierra Negra (it was still in the clouds) and back towards the coast. Back on the bikes and racing down the hill, we sped past another giant tortoise which was actually on the road.
A quick stop in the mangrove forest had us nearly tripping over a couple of huge marine iguanas, we are getting so used to them now, we hardly notice them.
The last stop before getting back into town was a lava tunnel by the beach. The tide was in though so we weren't able to walk through any of it. After a short ride along the edge of beach, we were back at the rental shop. We managed to get back within 2 hours and at $2USD per hour we were all happy.
We bought some ice creams and beer and sat on the beach for while before our 4pm walk back to the dock. There were some really friendly sea lions in the dock that were happily playing with those who ventured into the water.
Back on boat, there was slices of pizza and fresh fruit juice waiting for us, to see us through until dinner. The crew took our muddy shoes away for cleaning and then drying in the engine room.
After dinner, everyone decided to go early to bed, the boat is going to set sail at 1am to Floreana so it's best to get a few hours sleep before, in case it's rough.
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