Tortoise Breeding Center

We have changed our travel plans and have decided to spend an extra three days here and stay only 2 days in Santa Cruz, where we will get our flight for home. It is really laid back here, and it is a nice place to just hang out and relax. Santa Cruz is a big town. So here we are for a while longer.

We hiked to the tortoise breeding center this morning. There are 12 types of tortoises in the world and 5 types are found in the Galápagos Islands. One other breed became extinct last year. The breeding program for one of the species on Isla Isabel began when the 18 remaining tortoises were captured before a volcano erupted destroying their habitat. Today, there are over 200 of these tortoises in the breeding center. The tortoises will be released back into their habitat when they are mature enough to breed at 25 years old.

Mating Season

Juvenile Tortoises

Young Tortoises

Tortoise Food

On our walk to the breeding station we passed a flamingo lagoon but there were only two flamingos there. There are suppose to be about 500 flamingos total in the islands, so I guess we haven't seen them all yet!

Trail to breeding center.

The rest of today we spent hanging around.

Last night the moon was full and we had been told that the marine turtles might be coming ashore to lay their eggs. So we walked about a mile down the beach at 10:30 PM to see if we could find turtles. But, no such luck.