Galapagos Islands Day 1

Since I was going to be in Ecuador to visit my sponsored children, I thought I’d hop over the the Galapagos Islands.  I flew into Baltras airport on Santa Cruz Island.  When we landed, we had to take bus 10-15 minutes to a boat to hop over this little bit of water, then took a 45 or so minute bus ride ($2) into the town of Puerto Ayora.  I stayed at a hostal that was just a few blocks from where the bus dropped us off.  Germania de Hospedaje was great – I had my own room and bathroom and there was AC and hot water!!  

That afternoon, I walked to the Charles Darwin Research Center and found out a lot of info about the tortoises and the breeding project. 

small tortoises in the breeding centers

Path to the Charles Darwin Research Center

 Lonesome George was the last Pinton Tortoise  and they tried for decades to reproduce him.  It didn’t work and when he died in 2012, then sent him to a taxidermist in New York.  Poor George.

I explored the town of Puerto Ayora a bit.

The most common bird killed in the day on the way to the research center is the yellow canary and at night owls are killed when they try to feed off the canaries.  They put these owl murals up to remind drivers to go really slow to save the birds.