Today we left our hotel at 5:30 in the morning. We took the speed boat back to Santa Cruz and got there around 8:30. We then dropped our luggage off at Hotel Ninfa. From our hotel we walked to the Charles Darwin Center. The first thing we did at the center was stamp our passports and look at the gift shop. Julie and Cass were not feeling well so they ended up going to the hospital.
Then Jonathan came and got us so that we can walk around the exhibit. He began by explaining that the tortoises that we see here are for reproductive purposes like the other breeding center we went to on Isabela. After looking at the tortoises we went inside to the Lonesome George exhibit. Before going into the Lonesome George exhibit we waited 2 minutes in this decontamination area to make sure no bugs and also to make sure everyone is quiet and respectful of George. George was about 50 years old when he was found on Pinta Island in 1971. He was the only tortoise found on that island and he was brought to the breeding center. Scientists looked all over the world to try to find another Pinta tortoise like George. They hoped that since pirates took a lot of the tortoises maybe someone/somewhere would possibly have a pinta like George but that was not the case. Jonathan explained that the tortoises from Isabela were the most similar to George because they are also a saddle back. So the scientists at the Charles Darwin Center our female tortoise from Isabela with George in hope that he would mate. Years and years go by and George never mated maybe he just didn’t know how. So they found Diego a male tortoise from Isabela that came from the San Diego Zoo. As soon as Diego came into the pen with the other tortoises he started mating with all the females. George observes Diego and too started mating with the females. Unfortunately George’s eggs never hatched this could have been due to the fact that the females are technically a different species or the fact George was infertile. The male tortoises go infirtle by 80 years and by this point George was way over 90 years old. George passed away in 2012 due to natural causes. He was taxidermied and is on display at the Charles Darwin Research Center. Today Diego is about 109 years old and still mating. His sperm is perfect and still making tons of tortoises. He will be released back to Isabela island with some of the females and his offspring later this month where they can recover their population naturally. Jonathan than discussed the land iguanas at the center. He said that people always thought they were vegetarians but last year some of the iguanas were screen eating birds and octopuses. After looking at the iguanas we walked back to town to do some shopping before lunch. Haley, Lauren, Greg and I walked around together. We went to a really good chocolate shop and talked to the store owner that lived in Connecticut for a while until he moved back to Santa Cruz to start his business. We all ended up buying chocolate from him and talking with him for a long time and he gave us free popsicles. He told us that he is going to expand his business to start selling popsicles as well. He was a very nice guy and we were all shocked by his hospitality. Around this time it was time for lunch so we headed to the restaurant. We ate lunch then headed back to the hotel. We had an hour of resting till our meeting to discuss what we were to do for the rest of the night. Due to all the injuries Tait decided we should just stay at the hotel instead of going to Tortuga Bay. A lot of us used this downtime to work on our blogs. After working on the blog for a little Lauren and I went for a swim in our hotel pool. We then got ready for dinner and walked back to the restaurant where we ate our lunch. We sat down and ate our dinner. Tonight at dinner, Lauren asked for hot sauce and they gave her ketchup. She actually pored it on her food without even trying it. After dinner we had an hour before having to be back for the presentation. A couple of us shopped some more and then returned to the hotel. |
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