Sunday 21 May 2017

Santa Cruz. Puerto Ayora. Giant Tortoises. 13th May 2017


Saturday 13th May 2017

Santa Cruz. Puerto Ayora

Had travelled overnight and woke up in the bay of Puerto Ayora. Clearly a popular town with loads of boats moored in the bay. Took the zodiac into town and was somewhat surprised to see a seal on the landing pontoon, lying on a bench. Very relaxed!  Another was further down the pontoon just lying on the floor, oblivious to the people taking photo, or just trying to avoid it. We all wandered through town to the Charles Darwin centre. As we passed Pelican bay, a lady selling fresh fish was surrounded by Pelicans and one seal, all getting up close and personal, hoping for some fish scraps!

The Charles Darwin centre was a conservation centre for giant tortoises.  Sadly there was a building dedicated to ‘Lonesome George’ who had been the last remaining giant tortoise on Pinta island and the rarest creature in the world. What were believed to be the last three tortoises were removed to a museum in 1910s then George was found in 1971. Very sad to think that he had spent 65 years as the last of his species, on his own. He was transferred to the centre and they tried 4 different female tortoises with him, without success. He finally died in 2012 from natural causes, probably due to overfeeding – in the wild they go for months without food each year. Weird to see him now, stuffed in an air-conditioned room, and subject of our photos.

They’ve now got batches of tortoises being reared, even using the same soil from the relevant islands, ready to return and repopulate the islands.  Saw a few giant tortoises in fairly large compounds – Victor Meldrew eat your heart out.

Wandered back to Puerto Ayora and checked that our bags had arrived at Scuba Iguana. Relief. Celebrated with an early lunchtime happy hour with Pete and Brenda – Mojitos. Checked out various shops, but all quite expensive. Not surprising as everything is imported.

Back to the boat for lunch, then back to town again for a bus trip El Chato Tortoise Reserve. This was in the centre of Santa Cruz and was a reserve dedicated to Giant Tortoises.  We walked around with our guide to see lots of huge tortoises variously eating the tree fruit, wallowing in the ponds, or just eating grass.  We weren’t allowed to get more than 7 feet from them, but they didn’t seem bothered by the attention anyway.

Walked through a couple of volcanic lava tunnels, caused by the gradual cooling of lava flows.

Back to Puerto Ayora where the majority hit happy hour, but we went off to find our hotel for post-boat holiday. Quite happy with what we found, and a laundry around the corner!  Bought a rash vest on sale – will be useful for all the snorkelling. Saw a Pelican stealing a large fish tail from the fishmongers. Unfortunately it was so large it got caught in its neck and had to undergo lots of contortions to try and swallow the tail. His embarrassment wasn’t helped by me filming it right beside him.

Back for dinner on board the boat, then back to town again on the RIB. Hit a local bar for some gin and tonics – long time since we’ve had those. $12 for three ‘happy hour’.  A local festival had started up, probably to celebrate Mothers’ day tomorrow, but not much music and tended to be lots of talking (tombola?), plus outside stalls. Bought a small wooden giant tortoise and seal.

10 pm rib back to the boat.

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