On Sunday, we arrived in the Galapagos on San Cristobal Island. The Galapagos is an archipelago made up of very young volcanic islands, 5 main islands and many smaller ones. The islands are contained entirely within the Galapagos National Park and Marine Sanctuary, but it is also a province of Ecuador. San Cristobal is the political capital of the island chain.
After getting settled and having lunch on the Flamingo 1, we went back to shore and spent the afternoon on San Cristobal Island. Our afternoon tour took us to a tortoise sanctuary where the national park is protecting and raising the famous Galapagos Giant Tortoise. These huge, slow-moving reptiles are very much endangered. There are only two places in the world where they live, the Galapagos Islands and the Seychelles Islands off the coast of Africa. We saw several large adults, and we also got to see the turtle nursery where they are raising baby tortoises. We saw one bunch of young tortoises that were just a few weeks old. Giant Tortoises are one of the longest living creatures on earth. So these young tortoises could still be roaming the Galapagos 140 years from now!
After dinner on the boat, we set sail for our next destination, Darwin Bay on Genovesa Island.
 |
| Sea lions at the dock |
 |
| Our first giant tortoise |
 |
| San Cristobal Harbor |
No comments:
Post a Comment