Children vs Tortoises ??
This morning a bus load of little children arrived, 4-5 years old ?? they were going to get a tour of our garden, play games, and ride the horse, etc. we would divide into groups to help with the activities.
then Geovanny asked, 'who does not want to work with children?' ... well my hand was the first one up ... no surprise to anyone who knows me :) Kate and Olivia also volunteered. we were to go in the truck with Pepe about 30min, to load endemic plants. sounded good to me. we went on new roads to a different part of the island. we stopped a second at a look out to see the East side of the island, the side i saw from the airplane. he said visibility was good today ... but ...i guess it was a long ways away.
then we arrived at the Greenhouse .... impressive !
beautifully enclosed, sprinkling system, nice new racks, with lots ...
and lots of healthy looking plants; all endemic. ...i was really impressed. back at the house i learned that this is owned and run by the National Park Service. they have the resources to plant and care for these plants, but they don't have anywhere to 'plant' them ... so that's where we come in. ...great partnership !
after we made several trips to the truck, it was full. then the truck drove away without us??? Pepe, who doesn't speak any English, motioned for us to follow him up the road ... what we are walking home????? ... but no ........ he took us to the Galapagos Tortoise Breeding Center!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG ! i finally got to see them .... we were both SO EXCITED ... what a great treat for not wanting to work with the kids :)
i asked Pepe, in my best Spanish, how many tortoises were there ... 100 he answered. well, actually he said it in Spanish, and luckily Olivia speaks Spanish. so she was interpreting for us. this is Olivia, also from the U.K.
and this is Kate, my roommate ... we all look pretty happy, huh?
we walked around and learned that these tortoises cannot regulate their body temperature, so they need a variety of environments to live, including a pond to cool them.
then we went into the nursery .... little tortoises smaller than your fist ...they were so cute!
and up to this one that was 8 yrs old ... how big was it? ..... maybe 18" across the shell. it had a white "1" on it's back ... :)
we're going to be taking a land tour on Sunday and we will visit this place again, so i hope to get more info.
when we returned home Geovanny said that the Breeding Center has been quite successful and they are running out of room for them. the hope is that, at some point, we will get some of them on the property of Hacienda Tranquila ... we have lots of room .... so, that's one of the reasons why we are working so hard to eliminate the invasive species, and plant the endemic ones that the tortoises will be able to eat.
how exciting!!!!!!!!!! we returned with big grins on our faces. :)
after lunch a group worked in the garden transplanting banana trees ... i was surprised at how few roots are needed to start a new banana tree. i worked in the Endemic Nursery, arranging and organizing the new plants that we brought home.
at 3pm we were finished, and the taxis arrived to take us to town. we signed up for the snorkel tour tomorrow and i worked at the internet ... surprise surprise :)
got home and tried to fix dinner, but the kitchen was way too busy ... so i waited until later, and it was still pretty crowded, but i managed to fix myself some left over rice and veggies. it was only 8pm and i had to take my laptop outside and turn up Tommy Castro, Led Zeppelin, Boston, Moody Blues, The Who ... all the loud Rock and Roll i could find just to drown out the noise !
then i prepared for tomorrow's trip. it's the same trip that i did with Andy. maybe i'll see some sharks tomorrow !
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