The last day of the cruise had arrived much faster than expected. As I found out, it wasn't even a real last "day" - we were kicked off the boat at 8am!
Before that, we got up at six to see the birds nesting on the islet Daphne. Since it wasn't permitted to land there, the boat just circled around the islet. As a consequence, it was almost impossible to take decent pictures due to the faint light at dawn and the ship's constant movement. This is just about the only shot I managed that's not completely blurry:
On our way to the drop-off point at the airport, frigate birds were accompanying the boat:
And then, way before noon, I was back in Puerto Ayora, happy to have firm ground beneath my feet once again :-)
As I made my way to the Darwin breeding center, I found this booby staring at me:
Well, truth be told, he was staring for only about a second, during which I was lucky enough to shoot the picture, and then he went about his own business again ;-)
The Darwin center in Puerto Ayora is the oldest and biggest breeding center on the Galapagos. They breed tortoises from several of the smaller islands as well as land iguanas. To facilitate repatriation of the tortoises, they try to replicate their natural habitat as closely as possible, providing them with plenty of rocks and plants.
Land iguanas have apparently been close to extinction as well, threatened by introduced goats and pigs. So, next to efforts to eradicate alien animals from the islands, land iguanas are also bred in the Darwin center and repatriated when they reach a certain size.
The breeding center also used to be the home of Lonesome George, the last of his race, the Galapagos giant Pinta tortoise. He died only five days before I arrived on the Galapagos. His living room, now deserted, can still be seen:
Before that, we got up at six to see the birds nesting on the islet Daphne. Since it wasn't permitted to land there, the boat just circled around the islet. As a consequence, it was almost impossible to take decent pictures due to the faint light at dawn and the ship's constant movement. This is just about the only shot I managed that's not completely blurry:
On our way to the drop-off point at the airport, frigate birds were accompanying the boat:
And then, way before noon, I was back in Puerto Ayora, happy to have firm ground beneath my feet once again :-)
As I made my way to the Darwin breeding center, I found this booby staring at me:
Well, truth be told, he was staring for only about a second, during which I was lucky enough to shoot the picture, and then he went about his own business again ;-)
The Darwin center in Puerto Ayora is the oldest and biggest breeding center on the Galapagos. They breed tortoises from several of the smaller islands as well as land iguanas. To facilitate repatriation of the tortoises, they try to replicate their natural habitat as closely as possible, providing them with plenty of rocks and plants.
Land iguanas have apparently been close to extinction as well, threatened by introduced goats and pigs. So, next to efforts to eradicate alien animals from the islands, land iguanas are also bred in the Darwin center and repatriated when they reach a certain size.
The breeding center also used to be the home of Lonesome George, the last of his race, the Galapagos giant Pinta tortoise. He died only five days before I arrived on the Galapagos. His living room, now deserted, can still be seen:
