Visiting a Tortoise farm.........in the Galapagos...

The tortoises roam freely on this part of the island..... not quite a farm in the usual sense of the word!
We met a lot of them before we even got there.... on the small unpaved road.

Indeed it looked as though they wanted to leave and found the edge of the road preferable!

There were hundreds of them........

Some very large......

....... some not so large.....

they were everywhere.........

and  we had to step off the path as there wasn't really room for both of us.....

At one point we heard a loud-ish noise and when  asked what it was the guide took off at a fast pace and just said 'follow me'! We seemed to be going in the wrong direction but he was really just circling around.  He explained that the noise we heard was a mating noise......but we didn't have to rush as the whole episode lasts about 6 hours!!

Going to the Charles Darwin Center afterwards paled in comparison!
But we did get to see baby tortoises......

and some tortoises who seemed to be friends..........

and a friend who seemed to be exhausted....... 6 hours later maybe!!

A day out on a yacht to Isla Bartolome Galapagos......

The following day out the yacht trip was a lot longer........2.5 hours to be precise!  Each way!! Apparently the Galapagos Park decides  where one goes and changes the expected island to one of their choice at will! It depends on numbers! They only want 100 people per island per day so they decide which groups should be banded together! We were put with a group of backpackers and hikers!  We were all 69+!! And where we were going would be quite a challenge!
So we were changed from Isla Santa Fe......... to Isla Bartolome.  Not having done my research on this island I had no idea what to expect!
En route we were followed and played with by a group of dolphins.......
Delightful to watch!

Getting close to the island we were able to see what we were about to be expected to do! Climb that cone shaped extinct volcano!

This was described before getting there as climbing to get a great view! I think it was lost in
translation! I had no expectation of having to walk up steep (400+) steps  plus winding uphill pathways to get to a 110m look out point. At midday in tropical heat and no shade! But as pointed out to us.....we were able to take the same photo as appears on google when one inputs Galapagos! I suppose one has to look at the positive side!  But we could have all suffered heat stroke!

We did get to the top.......

and could look down on the path well traveled.........

... and passing the pinnacle rock was not at the top.......

The whole area was totally barren......NO ANIMALS!! Our reason for being here!

The Caldera was evident as we got off the boat......

On climbing up it was abundantly evident that we were on a 'dead' island!

While the scenery was indeed very dramatic we would have preferred to remain at sea level and see the Galapagos animals!

We were very happy to get back to the pier to wait for the dingy and see evidence of life.........

... and even happier to be actually on the dingy heading away........

....but the Pinnacle Rock still looked forbidding as we passed.........

Moving on to Galapagos...

Flying to the Galapagos islands from Quito is via Guayaquil...
so there is a short stopover there........ and a bug spray of the interior of the plane before arrival!

The airport is on a small island, Baltra.... which had 3000 US military during the Second World War.
The landing strip looked alarmingly short!

One has to take a bus to the small port, then a very short ride across to the larger Santa Cruz island......

....en route across we saw our first wildlife....... not being too into birds I had no idea what it was.... but others seemed impressed!

The road to the hotel was interesting with a road sign we had never seen before.......

....and indeed there was one crossing!

Arrival at our hotel  The Royal Palm was also interesting....... it was raining...heavily!  Something we would get used to! So we were met with lots of umbrellas!

We found out later that this is fairly normal in this Highlands area of the island ......in the rainy season... which runs October to March! However once once descends towards the coast it immediately becomes dry and sunny!
And indeed the umbrellas even joined us on the boat. on our days out..... supposedly for shade!

After lunch we went south on the island to El Garrapatero beach. Here we saw our first iguana.  However it blended so well into the volcanic rock that it was almost impossible to see! Can you find it??  ( left of centre and towards the top of the black!)

...... the coastline was a little bleak.....

Next morning it was back on the bus to go back to the port to take our yacht......

 ....to the small island of  North Seymour......
Here we did see some more colorful iguanas! Almost immediately upon arrival!

 In fact I almost stepped on one!  They have no fear... I did!

There were lots of interesting birds pointed out to us......but difficult to photograph!
However this one was next to an iguana and not in flight!

There were also a lot of seals..........
this one greeted us on arrival.........

This one unbelievably scaled the cliff face........

but on getting closer.....he seems quite relaxed!!

The island had very little vegetation.......

.......and was very windy........ in fact too windy to use the umbrellas we were advised to bring along!!