The Galapagos, day two.

Our first stop was the Charles Darwin Research Center, where we got some information about the islands and visited four species of giant tortoise including Lonesome George.

a fitting place for this UMD grad

go long!

Lonesome George

nom nom nom

hello, tourist

NOM NOM NOM!!!

We also saw land iguanas in captivity - the only ones we will see because they live on an island we won't be visiting. Crazy prehistoric looking things, all of them.

nap time

From there we went to the Scalesia zone where we walked around the top of a giant crater formed from lava tubes. It was pouring again. The mud almost ate my flip flops and the walk left us all a bit soggy and mucky, but the panoramic view was stunning. (Regardless, better to get drenched in the Galapagos than on the way back from a lunch break at the office. Hi, friends in cubeland! Ahem. Anyway.)

Scalesia Zone at Los Gemelos

After the walk and "foot wash" (literally a rain puddle near the van) we stopped at yet another tortoise reserve. They're everywhere here. So enormous and stoic, those creatures.

swamp thing, you make everything groovy

this one only weighed about 400lbs

At this stop we also ate empenadas con verde bigger than my water bottle. Light and fluffy deep fried goodness... It may have been the best empanada I will ever eat. That doesn't mean I won't keep looking for it's rival, of course.

my nom

Our final stop was La Garrapatero where we saw the elusive greater flamencos. It had stopped raining and the sky couldn't have given better lighting for these birds. I saw them at the Sydney zoo years ago and at the time couldn't believe how frail they seemed - in their natural habitat, even moreso. Gorgeous creatures. Nearby were Galapagos white chucked pintailed ducks.... looked like regular old ducks to me.

sometimes pink doesn't stink

On the brief walk back to the beach we saw a dark-billed cuckoo, a rare sighting. I'm really thinking that these tour guides just say everything is rare to see, though. I also took advantage of the b/w setting on my camera:

tree aht

The beach was pretty but I had that feeling again of being spoiled by pacific coast beaches and had to remind myself that not everyone is so lucky... and that I was in the frigging Galapagos Islands (so STFU, self).

After a late lunch we spent a few hours in town doing whatever while they fixed Cat (um, yeah, great, right?), which for me entailed some photo ops:

Galapagos irony

he's on a boat!

{sigh}

pretty in...

local volleyball match at the pier

Later we ate dinner and set "sail" (it's a motorboat 75% of the year) for San Cristobal island. We all sat on top under the most amazing bed of stars I think I have ever seen. Santorini had great stargazing, but this was a whole new level of wow. I found a quiet spot and sat for two hours just staring in awe...

Absurd thing o' the day: killing time by drinking a mojito in a bar in the Galapagos. (A toast to the CHM, of course. Cheers, friends.)