On Tuesday we started our travels to the Galapagos. Our group was thrilled to begin this
leg of our trip and see the breathtaking wildlife most of us had shared with
the students in our classroom. We late
mid-afternoon and visited the twin sinkholes before unloading at our hotel on
Santa Cruz Island. The sink holes were formed by giant pockets of gas
from a volcanic eruption and over time they collapsed.
Our next excursion on the Galapagos was to the Darwin Research
Station. Over 200 scientists and volunteers work here to help their
captive breeding program so more baby tortoises survive when they are young.
Giant tortoises can live for up to 200 years and weight in at up to
700lbs. Lonesome George was a celebrity of the center because he was the
only survivor from the Isla Pinta subspecies. He was moved to the center
in 1972 but died in 2012 and his species of tortoise is now extinct.
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| Male tortoise |
Two female tortoises
Along with seeing several species of tortoises we learned about the
three different types of cactus plants that only live on the Galapagos. They
are called the candelabra cactus, prickly pear cactus and lava cactus. Each one
looks very different; can you tell which one is which?
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