Santa Cruz Galapagos and Gauyaquil 29-31st March 2007

It was really sad that our Galapagos trip was coming to the end and we said goodbye to Sulidae, our boat. After another early start we were at the Charles Darwin Research Centre by about 7.30am. We saw baby giant tortoises that hatched out in 2006 and 2007 and also some bigger ones, including Lonesome George, the last of his species from Pinta Island.

Most species on the Galapagos islands are left alone for natural selection and the evolution of the species to continue, but the Charles Darwin Centre has a giant tortoise breeding program because humans have intervened with their population numbers. Between 100,000 and 200,000 giant tortoises were taken by explorers, pirates and fisherman and stored, stacked upside down, on the boats to provide fresh meat! The tortoises can survive for up to a year like this without any food or water.

We then were on a bus across Santa Cruz to Baltra where we caught our flight back to Guayaquil. Our hotel, the Gran Hotel Guayaquil, picked us up and we spent a couple of days resting and enjoying hot water! (there was none on our boat). Steve took another course of antibiotics!