Our arrival in Santa Cruz (the most populated island in the Galapagos) coincided with some Equadorian local elections. This is relevant because, during the weekend of elections, they ban all alcohol sales, but as our guide said, there is always a way round these things. This mostly consisted of hiding our beers under the table in the restaurant, so any passing policemen wouldn't feel the need to come in and confiscate them, and solemly promising the sales assistant in the supermarket that we wouldn't tell a soul if she sold us a bottle of wine!
Santa Cruz is home to Lonesome George, the last of a specific species of giant tortoise, who is kept in a large luxury enclosure in the Darwin Centre. Once George kicks the bucket, the 13th last species of tortoise will become extinct. So, they are desperately trying to get George to mate, but he's just not interested in any of the ladies from other species, he's a pure blood sort of a guy and no amount of coaxing is going to change that. It seems to me that all the pressure must be getting to him a bit too. The whole world (well everyone that is interested in tortoises) is watching him, willing him to make his move on any of the ladies that they try to tempt him with. As if to rub salt into the wound, in the next pen is Randy Diego. He has single handidly repopulated his endagered species by fathering over 1000 baby tortoises. Alright, he had some girls of the right species to work with, but still, no wonder George is struggling to perform with Diego constantly going at it next door. That kind of pressure's going to get to a guy.
That afternoon we wandered up to a farm in the highlands of the island to see some tortoises in the wild. I mean, I know they are pretty cool, and it's not really possible to see them anywhere in the world, but I think I can safely say that I have now had my quota of Giant Tortoise viewing. I mean, it's not like they do anything very exciting, well, apart from Diego of course.
The adrenalin levels were increased somewhat when we went for a scramble/crawl through some lava tunnels. The lava tunnels are formed as the hot magma flows from the volcano and the outside of the flow cools quickly, creating a tunnel for the lava to flow through inside. These ones were mostly pretty huge, but they did get a bit tight in parts, leading to slight claustrophobia angst on my part, but we made it out the other side and it was very cool to see it.
Our action packed time on Santa Cruz was rounded off with some kayaking in Tortuga bay. A 45min trek from the road took us to a beautiful white sandy beach and we paddled round the bay looking for sharks. The visibility was quite poor though and we didn't spot anything, so we gave up and went to play in the waves for a little while instead.
Our Galapagos adventure was complete when we were served dinner that night on a piece of hot lava rock, and we polished off a bottle of rum on the roof of the hotel, as everyone has started to take the alcohol ban very seriously all of a sudden!
I know my descriptions have been a bit long winded, but we did so much and I don't want to forget any of it, so won't apologise for the detail. Galapagos is a fabulous place, and is definately making it up into the top 3 places we have been. It marks the end of our South American adventure and I can't think of a better way to round it off than the amazing week that we had here.
