Tuesday February 12, 2013

Tuesday February 12/13 update  # 366

We were off by 7am to go the Darwin Center with a guide named Paul from England who has been a biologist here for 10 years.  His explanations of how plant and animal growth began on newly formed volcanic rock are nothing less than extraordinary.  The long and short of it is that seedlings were either airborne by the wind, carried by the sea, or carried by birds.  Birds would carry things either as mud on their legs and feathers or in their poop.  Darwin apparently planted the mud he collected off one finch and checked to find 16 or more different plant species had grown. 

Mangroves float in the arid zones and grow everywhere reaching down with tentacles to start new trunks which are fed with water at high tide.  They even send up little snorkels to collect oxygen to survive..

Animals and plants that must survive in a harsh environment learn to adapt and form new species, such as the marine iguana which had to learn to swim to collect food underwater.

The highlight of the tour is to see the successful breeding program to save the giant turtles, which again have many species.  We saw them from the baby stage right up to the huge adults that may be hundreds of years old.  Turtles are probably the oldest example of adaptability because they initially grew their shells as a defense against carnivorous dinosaurs!  Yes, they pre-date the dinosaurs!

In June, their oldest turtle, Lonesome George sadly passed away.  The Center tried everything to get George to mate with females of his own species but they could not figure out his lack of interest.  Apparently he had major problems with his internal organs, no other reason.

His replacement is Diego, borrowed from the San Diego zoo.  Diego, along with four other males have been happily breeding and providing a lot of eggs for incubation.  This brought up another story of their earliest efforts producing only female offspring.  It turns out the incubation temperature will determine the sex off the baby, so they learned many new things in the process.

The most interesting turtle evolution is the saddleback turtle.  Because they had no predators on Galapagos they began to strain against the front of their shell so they could reach higher for plant matter.  Apparentlt they cab stretch up to 5 feet high now, and they expect them to increase the height substantially in the next few hundered years.

They work diligently to be sure that no outside species of plant or animal is brought to the Galapagos, hence the strict screening and then the spraying of our carry-on luggage.   I feel they should have a short course upon landing so everyone understands the importance of keeping this location pure unto itself.  There is a story of a German who tried to smuggle out 2 marine iguanas in his luggage because the reward is about $100,000 each.  I hope the idiot gets fined that much and is locked up for idiocy for many years.

Again I wish I could send you a lot of pictures but it just isn’t going to happen until much later.

I managed to find some nice sandals to wear instead of my runners in this heat, then we had a lovely lunch in town before taking the water taxi back across the bay.   Bella retired to her book again until she conked out for her afternoon nap.

I, on the other hand, grabbed a beach towel and beach umbrella and trekked off to Finch Bay, not far from here and joined the many families enjoying the sun and the sand and the water.   I had a good dip and could have easily just fallen asleep on my back in the salt water, no problem floating at all.   I must have as much hot air as a politician!  But the sun is close to being directly overhead at this time of year so it wouldn’t take long to be burnt to a crisp.  I had a good time in the water then retired under the umbrella for a while.    I toyed with the idea of going back in but the tide was coming in and getting within a foot of my towel so I packed up to leave.  The family next to me were taking Carnaval very seriously spray-foaming the kids and covering each other in some kind of blue paint.   I am not too certain that I enjoy their version of Carnaval!

We went out for a lovely supper at the same restaurant as Sunday night and enjoyed the antics of the pelicans and frigate birds on the boat ride in, while it was raining.  At the dock there was an artisan’s display of wood carving, starting with chain saws and the final results were breathtaking, mostly of turtles mating.

The others were eating leftovers at home and ate late so we had to wait for them to play Mexican Train dominoes again.  Bella was in the lead all night, losing on the last hand, just like I did the night previous.   Some of the rules they have thrown in there are very frustrating so a few of us will be glad for a respite from it.  The others are going snorkeling at Bartolome tomorrow so we can have a lazy day.  I note that my feet are close to being burnt already just from the short time I was at the beach, and in the water.   Gotta respect Mother Nature around here.

I am only able to post a couple of shots on my Facebook page but there is still now way to do the photo Blog.  Sorry again, but a few of the sgots today will be worth waiting for.

That was today’s excitement.  Hugs to all.