swimming with sharks and petting 200 yr old turtles...

i had that opportunity for the past five days in the galapagos islands (famous for huge old turtles and darwin’s discovery of the theory of evolution), and it was absolutely fascinating. i’ll try to recount some of the highlights and keep it reasonably short:

the first thing i noticed when we arrived was how different the landscape was than how i thought it would be. i thought it would be tropical, but its actually really dry. cactus, huge lava rock, and trees without leaves abound on the majority of the five islands that we visited. it was rather barren, in an interesting way. but even a 20 min drive away changes the landscape pretty drastically, where there is a lot more foliage (though quite a bit of it introduced, not native).

the first day we arrived, on the island santa clara, we hiked to some huge collapsed volcano craters and climbed through a cave-like lava tunnel. then we got to walk around a private farm and walk up close to huge galapagos turtles in their natural environment. that evening we sat in a café near the beach, having a delightful two-hour socio-political discussion.
the next day, we went to the charles darwin research station where they raise turtles of all the island’s species. due to the introduction of rats and goats on the island, the turtle population has been dangerously reduced, so the center raises turtles (and is able to control the gender of the new turtles by the temperature where they keep the eggs, to ensure they raise enough females), then the turtles are released into the wild with no adjustment problems. the center is also home to “lonesome george,” the only turtle left of his sub-species, which is a problem, because as of yet, he has not been able to reproduce with turtles of other similar sub-species. they are considering cloning him, but because of his already advanced age, that wouldn’t help much.


then we traveled to isabela, my favorite island because the base of its economy is not tourism but fishing, and that was evident in the tranquil nature of the town. we stayed at a cute little hotel that kept tons of black iguanas, and the place was right on the beach. the water there is crystal clear, the beach is lined with black volcanic rock and white sand, and there are tons of colorful crabs and huge birds everywhere. these islands are really so alive!

at isabela we also rode horses to the top of a volcanic crater and then hiked inside of it. it really looked like another planet, or the moon, it was so desolate.
there were a few cacti, but mostly just colorful volcanic rock. it was so cool! later we went snorkeling and saw a monoray!