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.
