Tuesday, June 21 - summer solstice!

  We were successful in staying up past 9 pm last night. We actually watched the June 16 game between the Minnesota Lynx and the Las Vegas Aces. I have WNBA League Pass so we can watch any game, any time as long as we have wifi. And it worked in Ecuador! The game was very fast-paced and fun to watch but, alas, the Lynx lost by one point.

We got down to breakfast around 7 am and received a Whatsapp message from our vendor indicating that we are not going to AnSattisana volcano today because roads are blocked. They’re also trying to book us a room nearer the airport for tonight, as our flight to Coca leaves tomorrow morning. Alas, all the hotels are booked. We guess it’s because traffic is snarled – it takes about 45 minutes to get from our hotel to the airport.

The protesters made their way into Quito yesterday, and many were assembled in the park across from our hotel. Our hotel is barricaded. The protesters were chanting and drumming until around 10 pm when the curfew takes place.

Here’s the news today: “President Guillermo Lasso extended a state of emergency to cover six provinces, with a nighttime curfew in Quito, as he seeks to curtail demonstrations that have seen roads barricaded countrywide, cost the economy tens of millions of dollars, and left dozens of people injured.”

The report continues: “On foot, on motorcycles and in crowded trucks, the Indigenous protesters began a peaceful march towards the city center from Cutuglagua, an area in southern Quito where they have been steadily growing in number since Sunday.

A hundred Indigenous people also entered the city from the north.

The powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) – credited with helping topple three presidents between 1997 and 2005 – called the protest as Ecuadorans increasingly struggle to make ends meet.

Indigenous people comprise more than a million of Ecuador’s 17.7 million inhabitants, and their protest has since been joined by students, workers and others feeling the economic pinch.”

Totally out of our control. We’re so glad we’re in the hands of Audley, our travel agent for this portion of the trip.

We are scheduled to fly to Coca tomorrow and be in the Amazon until Saturday then the folks from Casa Divina in Mindo are supposed to pick us up at 5 am on Sunday for our five days in Mindo. If the roads are still blocked on Sunday, we most likely won’t be going to Mindo so our options? Probably cancel the Mindo trip as well as the indigenous experience, reschedule our flights and come home. Dang.

So there was a platoon of police on motorcycles that accosted a young man on his bike right in front of our hotel, and they’re moving to block the road. Audley just informed us that they found a hotel room in a hotel closer to the airport so Eddie, our guide, is picking us up at 9:30 am, luggage and all, and we’re supposed to do an excursion then he’ll drop us off at the hotel.

It’s going to be an interesting day.

By the time Eddie got to the hotel, it was barricaded so he had to park in the underground parking garage to retrieve us.

It was a beautiful morning – the sun was shining, finally, so he took us to the Telefériqo Quito’s cable car that whisks passengers up the Pichincha volcano in glass gondolas. The 1.5-mile (2.5-kilometer) journey up the mountain offered what was the best panoramic views of the city. It ended at the Cruz Loma plateau, where hiking trails lead to Rucu Pichincha, one of the volcano’s twin peaks. Needless to say, we did not hike.

In fact, the gondola took us from 9,000 feet to 12,000 feet, and that might possibly be the highest we have ever been (our favorite pass, Beartooth Pass, in Wyoming is only around 11,000 feet). So we stood for a while and listened to Eddie tell us about the volcanoes and such. I was still feeling a little woozy from the boat but I felt REALLY WOOZY standing there, as was Beth so we didn’t stay long. It was beautiful though.

From there, Eddie took us to the botanical gardens. It seemed so far removed from the protests. However, we heard two explosions as we were getting to the gate, and helicopters flew over twice. Eddie was constantly checking his phone to get updates.

The Hotel Hilton Colon at which we were staying was totally on lockdown, as many more protesters were in the park across the street, and they had closed it. Our friends from Canada said at breakfast they were going to the Old Town. Well, I’m certain that didn’t happen because on the news this morning, we saw razor wire at the presidential palace and no one was permitted into Plaza Grande nor Plaza San Francisco where we were yesterday.

The botanical garden was beautiful. We saw lots of endemic flora and fauna. The best part was the orchids. Some so tiny you would never know they were orchids, while others were beautiful colors.

We strolled through the gardens until about 1:15 pm, and Eddie used his GPS to see where the obstacles were located on the road to the airport. We did alright until about 20 minutes out when we had to detour as protesters were burning tires and blocking the road. We wound up through the suburbs where you could see that the protesters had been there – blackened streets where tires were burned, some spots still had flames and all.

There was hardly any traffic at all, and we all were praising the fact that there were very few tourists so we had things almost to ourselves. 

We get to our new hotel around 2:15 pm but had to wait until around 3:30 pm when our room was ready. It is so much better than the Hilton – it’s a charming colonial complex with 78 rooms, gardens and one of the most important collections of trees of the Ecuadorian highlands. There are trees of all latitudes: 5 types of palm trees, 5 types of pine, 4 types of eucalyptus trees, kapok, sequoia, coffee trees, magnolias, nags. In addition to many native trees as cholan, walnut, pink sauce, among others. In total, the collection of trees contains a variety of species, some trees over 200 years old. 

We probably won’t see them as I took a nap and Beth took advantage of the whirlpool bathtub. Then I worked on the blog.

There’s also a farm here that is specially designed for children, an interactive experience with rabbits, ducks, chickens, sheep, goats, peacocks, etc. There was a llama and her baby milking in the parking lot.

So here we sit waiting to go eat supper at the on-site restaurant.

Eddie is picking us up at 7 am and get us to the airport that is about 15 minutes from here so we can catch our flight to Coca then we’ll be met by those folks and put on a canoe.

Another emergency order was just issued with a curfew and encouraging everyone to remain in place. Even the U.S. Embassy and Consulate officials have been instructed to avoid road travel and remain in place. 

We might very well be in the midst of a revolution. 

We fly back to Quito on June 25, then we’re supposed to go to Mindo for five days. If things continue as they are now, we probably will cancel the remainder of our trip (we have a three-day indigenous experience in Guamote planned for July 2-5 after the Mindo excursion), and – with Elaine’s help – get a flight back home.

Each day has become a bigger adventure than we had imagined. 

BTW, I have no idea if there is wifi in the Amazon so this might be my last post until June 25 when we hopefully arrive at our hotel in Quito.

                                            The hotel at which we were staying was barricaded by the time we left at 9:30 am this morning. It was a good thing Audley moved us out of the hotel, as protesters were already amassing and by noon, the road was closed and the protesters were burning tires. The hotel was on lockdown. We have friends from the boat trip that are at the hotel for the next four days. They thought they were going to see the Old Town today. I imagine they're holed up in the hotel.

                                                The cable car gondolas in which we ascended from 9,000 feet to 12,000 feet.

                                                    At the top looking northeast.

                                                    At the top looking south.

                                                    Eddie, our guide.

                                                            This is what Ecuadorans call a paper tree. It actually is Polylepis, and Polylepis forests used to cover the high Andes. Only a few forests remain in the Ecuadorian Andes. Most grow on federally protected lands above the normal tree line, between 9,800 – 16,400 feet, making the Polylepis the highest-growing flowering tree in the world. At the highest elevations, this slow growing tree can take more than 160 years to grow a half-inch in diameter.

Pichincha Volcano (Volcán Pichincha). It is a is a stratovolcano in Ecuador. The capital Quito wraps around its eastern slopes. Lots of people hike to its summit. It is an active volcano; the most recent significant eruption began in August 1998. On March 12, 2000, a phreatic eruption killed two volcanologists who were working on the lava dome.

                                                    An orchid in the botanical garden.

                                                    More orchids.

                                                        Protesters blocking the road to the airport.

                                                Protesters burning tires and rubbish under an overpass on way to the airport.

                                                    San Jose de Puembo hotel where we're staying tonight.

                                                            Another interior room at the hotel.

                                                    Llama with baby milking the hotel's parking lot.

                                                    Our room at San Jose de Puembo.

Monday, June 20

We did not make it to Artisana today because all the roads are closed due to protests by indigenous folks over gas prices and food prices.

We got a phone call about 8 am telling us that our guide Eddie would be here at 9 am and we would do a Quito tour.

First thing was dropping off our laundry. We had quite a bit from the boat trip, and it cost only $12 to do it all.

Then Eddie drove us up to the highest point in Quito – the Virgen de el Panecillo (Virgin of Quito in English), which is a huge sculpture made of aluminum that sits in the heart of Quito. It is the 135 feet tall, including the base, and is the highest statue in Ecuador, and one of the highest in South America (its taller than the Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro). It also is the tallest aluminum statue in the world. It is a replica of a 48-inch-tall wooden sculpture created by Bernardo de Legarda in 1734. The original is in the monastery we visited. The statue is made of 7,4000 pieces of aluminum, which was disassembled in Spain and assembled again on top of the base. It was finished on March 28, 1975.

From the hill of El Panecillo, we could see nearly all of Quito. Quito is very narrow, 26 miles and six miles at the widest. It sits between the western and eastern ranges of the Andes. There are 2.5 million souls.

The weather worked with us, as it was raining when we took off from the hotel but had cleared by the time we go to the top of El Panecillo so I’ve included some photos.

From there, we drove down to the old town that is filled with colonial churches, historic streets, and some of the city’s most important buildings like the presidential palace.

Eddie was concerned that Plaza de la Independencia (Plaza Grande) was closed because of the protests by indigenous folks over gas and food prices. The city of Quito is under curfew, and you wouldn’t believe the military/police presence. There are three kinds of law enforcement that you can distinguish by the uniform: there is the tourist police who wear yellow and orange vests (they are not allowed to carry guns); there is the local police who wear gray camouflage, and they can carry pistols; then there is the military which is dress in green camouflage and they carry AK-17s. There were even what I would call riot police in Plaza San Francisco with shields and everything. And there six helicopters constantly circling the plaza.

Because of the protests, a lot of places are not open and, much to our advantage, there are few tourists! We wandered around all morning without seeing many tourists but the plazas, which normally are bustling with people, were pretty empty.

Anywho, we parked and walked through La Ronda, which is an addition to Quito’s UNESCO-listed historical district. I believe Eddy said it was the oldest district in the old town. Its origins date back to the time of the Incas, but it underwent a major transformation after the Spanish conquest I the 16th century as residential and commercial construction began – largely in the Andalusian style common in Spain. In the late 19th-century, La Ronda got the reputation of being a bohemian barrio, and over the following few decades, it became home to painters, poets, political activists and even priests. It has been rejuvenated with lantern-lit streets and floral balconies, making it one of the crown jewels of Quiteno culture. There’s a series of doorways that open upon to a courtyard on which there are multiple art galleries, museums, craft shops and elegant restaurants.

From there, we went to Plaza de la Indpenedencia on which the presidential palace, the buildings housing the administrative offices for Quito and the Catedral Metropolitana or Metropolitan Cathedral, which is the highest-ranking Catholic building in the city. 

Most of the buildings are Baroque but there are a couple of churches that are more Medieval architecture.

We stopped in one of the small cafes to enjoy the people-watching and have a beverage. I got a wonderful cappuccino, and Beth had mango frappe.

From there, we went over to Plaza San Francisco, which is attached to the San Francisco religious complex built by Franciscan monks in 1537 and said to be Latin America’s oldest church. 

Built over a period of 150 years (1534-1680) and founded by Franciscan missionary Jodoco Ricke, the complex was the first Catholic church in Quito. At over eight acres, it is the biggest of its kind in the Americas, encompassing one main church and two chapels, seven courtyards and patios, vegetable gardens, catacombs and even a football pith and old brewery.

We were allowed in only one of the courtyards (where we saw parrots!) and the main church. We also climbed up to the towers to get another overview of Quito. The towers have been reconstructed after they collapsed in a 1638 earthquake.

We then passed through Bodegas Plaza San Jose, which was a pretty drab plaza compared with the others. It was the site, however, of some violent protests last week in which protesters threw rocks at law enforcement.

We slowly ambled back to a pharmacy to get toothpaste then on to the car. On the way to pick up the laundry, we made plans for tomorrow and, hopefully, we can do Atisana which Eddie raved about in terms of wildlife. We might get a chance to see an Andean condor!

Eddie dropped us off at the hotel around 1:30 pm. The park directly across the street from the hotel is a “hot spot” for protesters, and there is a huge law enforcement presence.

It’s 3 pm, and there is a small contingent of protesters moving through the park but it isn’t threatening or anything. But we’ll check with the concierge before leaving later this afternoon to visit the market directly across from the hotel in the other direction and eating at the Magic Bean that Eddie highly recommended.

After our nap, we took off to the market and the Magic Bean. We browsed the market – can’t buy anything yet as our backpack and small suitcase is full. We will buy some things at the market in Guamote during the last segment of the trip. Eddie said it has the best indigenous market in all of Ecuador so we can buy an oversized bag, stuff it and check our luggage on the trip home.

We never found the Magic Bean but we ended up in Plaza Foche, and a young lady convinced us to eat at Miskay that serves Ecuadorian food. Mis comes from a Quiteno word that means food. Kay means culture. So Miskay is food culture. I had a pork tenderloin in a delicious milk/peanut sauce and Beth had what they called trout but it really was salmon.

Took a cab back to the hotel, and it’s 6:45 pm. I’m working on the blog, Beth is reading, and we’re going to try to stay awake until at least 9 pm.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

        A NOTE: Beth met a woman in line for the bathroom at the Quito airport who has a close friend named Joanne who teaches math at Winona State University. It's a small world - although I don't know a Joanne from math. In fact, I don't know anyone from the math department! :)

        AND, we're just now starting to feel like we're on solid ground. I was taking a shower last night, and it felt like I was rock'n'rollin' - just like being on the boat!

                                                         Virgen de el Panecillo,

                                                South Quito from El Panecillo.

                                                            La Ronda.

                                                    Presidential Palace.

                                                            Catedral Metropolitana .

                                                        The church for poor people. Eddie explained to us the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, and this church was built for poor people to worship.

                                                            La Compania de Jesus - the earliest church in Quito. It was begun in 1530 and it took some 70 years to build it.

                                                Monasterio de Carmen Alto, the home to Carmelite nuns who are cloistered.

                                            One of the seven courtyards in the massive San Francisco monastery.

                                                A parrot in the monastery courtyard.

                                                Just one corner at which there was military presence.

                                                Plaza San Francisco from the towers of the monastery. Normally, this plaza would be full of people but with the protests and such, people are staying at home for their safety. And there were very few tourists with which we had to compete!

                                                    Some mural art. Artwork is all over the city in the form of murals and sculptures.

                                                A fountain with sculptures/artwork.

                                                    Military presence in park across from our hotel.

    

                                                The protesters in park across from our hotel. The military retreated to station themselves in front of our hotel.

                                                    Beth at dinner, Miskay's Restaurant.

                                                            Beth's dinner at Miskay.

                                                            My dinner at Miskay.

Saturday, June 18

Woke up this morning at Chinese Hat, a small island off the coast of Santa Cruz. It features a lava field that everyone but me hiked this morning. I’m done with hiking/walking as it doesn’t take long for my hip to start hurting and scrambling over lava rocks – well, it doesn’t appeal to me this morning.

I stayed on board, downloaded photos from my phone to post with the blog when we get back to “civilization,” i.e. wifi. The crew on the boat consists of nine people: the captain and his and co-captain, the chef and co-chef, bartender Carina and three young, strong men who do everything. And then there is Venus, the boss (CEO) of the entire operation. The crew work really hard, as I watched what they did when everybody was gone. They clean the rooms, make the beds, empty the trash, clean the windows, clean the railings, wash down the decks – and they do it every day. And the young men are vital to getting people like us in and out of the pangas, which is very challenging when the water is choppy. Couldn’t do it without them. One of the young men goes on our walks with us – Derrick, the man from England I spoke about earlier, had a stroke six months ago that left his left side paralyzed but he’s been doing rehab and is able to walk with us with the help of the young man. He and his wife, Carol, have planned this trip for three years. I couldn’t visit with any of the crew, as none of them speak English which is unfortunate because I always enjoy talking with the locals.

Beth returned early from the walk, suffering with “traveler’s discomfort.” She said it was probably wise I didn’t do the hike as there were stretches of treacherous lava rocks. She said they spotted a Galapagos penguin in the water about 100 feet from there they stood. They are tiny penguins – less than a foot tall – and they are endemic to the islands. It’s the only penguin found north of the equator. They can propel themselves at up to 40 km per hour through the water because they have small, muscular wings that act as paddles and their wings act as rudders. She reported that they also saw two dead baby sea lions that were well on their way to rotting and some black baby iguanas.

The Galapagos Islands consist of 13 large islands and 100-plus small islands, islets and rocks. In 1978, the archipelago was one of the first places to be made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, which declared it a World Biosphere Reserve six years later. Its position as strengthened in 1998 with the creation of the Reserva Marina de Galapagos, protecting 133,000 square kilometres of ocean, making it one of the largest marine reserves in the world.

So now Beth is on the boat with me, and we’ve decided that this is going to be our down day since we now don’t have one next week. We travel tomorrow back to Quito, hoping we don’t have to spend hours in the Guayaquil airport again, then on Monday we do a day trip to Artisana Volcano then our original down day on Tuesday now will be a full day of sightseeing in Quito. 

We sat on the sun deck for an hour or so until the wind came up and chilled us so we retreated to our cabin for a brief “nap” before lunch.

Joined everyone at lunch to hear about the snorkeling. They saw some black-tipped sharks and one penguin swimming. They agreed that yesterday’s snorkel was the best and couldn’t be topped so I was relieved since we love to snorkel, and it was difficult to pass on the last snorkel but Beth is not comfortable enough to get in a wetsuit, and I’m just tired.

Everyone took off around 2:30 pm for another walk on Santa Cruz. The captain motored over to our new site after lunch. The water was choppy again, so the best place to be was lying prone on your bed.

Beth remained on the boat with me so we’re reading and resting, waiting for everybody to return and report what they saw on the walk. 

The report about the walk was that it was hot, which was not the case on the boat. The sun was warm but the breeze kept things comfortable. They did spot lots of iguanas and boobies (there are the blue-footed ones and the Nazca boobies).

Supper was delightful because Venus brought the crew up, Carina served us some kind of wine cocktail and was said farewell.

The one shocker was our bar bill – we usually drank a glass of wine each evening before supper. I think Beth had a gin & tonic as well as a pina colada at some point, and we drank TWO glasses of wine the night everyone tested negative for COVID as well as the final night. I figured, at $7 a glass, it would be around $140. Not. It was $206 which apparently included a 25% service fee. Wowza – and it needed to be cash so we were glad we withdrew $300 from the bank when we were in Porto Ayora.

We have one more activity tomorrow before breakfast and beginning the travel to Quito.

Chinese Hat Island.

                                                    Lava field on Chinese Hat.

                                                                Chinese Hat lava, flora and fauna.

                                                        Islands near Chinese Hat.

                                                Me on down day.

                                                Me on down day!

Friday, June 17

I was incorrect about the walk being after lunch. After breakfast, we went ashore on Floreana Island for a walk past a lagoon that had about 25 flamingos flying around and dozing. There are, according to Venus, our guide, exactly 353 flamingos on Floreana. The walk was brief but was up and down, and I am so tired.

Floreana is among the oldest islands, weather-beaten and eroded over several million years. It is the sixth largest island in the Galapagos and has a small settlement of around 100 people on its western coast.

The next activity was snorkeling around Devil’s Crown (also called Onslow), which is a submerged cone sheltering coral reefs. The current is very strong, and we were going to have to climb back into the panga twice so we decided to stay on the boat and rest. Probably our best decision so far, as our compatriots said it was very rough and difficult. Some only did one segment.

While they were laboring, we were sitting on the sun deck enjoy the morning sun and breeze.

We ate lunch then took a nap before our next activity, which was snorkeling from a beach. It’s much easier because you just drop off the panga in shallow water then head out to snorkel.

Before we snorkeled, we went to the “post office.” Ecuador doesn’t have postal service – it’s all done by commercial businesses and is impossibly expensive. The “post office” on Floreana is marked by a shrine of planks with the names of yachts etched onto them. It is in Post Office Bay, named after a barrel near the beach that has been used as a makeshift mail drop since the end of the 18th century. British whalers, who left letters here to be picked up by homeward-bound vessels, began the practice. It was exploited during the American war of 1812 when US Navy Captain David Porter, intercepted communications here, allowing him to round up a one million tons of shipping in the region’s waters. 

The original barrel has long been replaced by the shrine, but post is still left and delivered free of charge by visitors. Inside what resembled a Free Library was a large two-gallon Ziploc bag with hundreds of post cards. We sorted through them – I came upon one that someone had requested the post card be left there, and they would pick it up on their 30th wedding anniversary in 2030. I chose two to take with me and mail when I get a chance. One was to New Berlin, Wisconsin; the other one I chose was going to Joliet, Montana, and it was in a child’s handwriting addressing grandma and grandpa. Beth took two post cards: one to Duluth and the other is to Prescott, Arizona. 

We then snorkeled, and it was the best yet. We saw stingrays, turtles, sea lions and hundreds of different fish along with a rocky outcropping near the beach.

Unfortunately, plans shifted somewhat because we were to go on a panga ride along the coastline but an engine on one of the pangas bit the dust, and they couldn’t fix it. So we now have only one panga that seats 10 at most so it now is used to shuttle one group, then the other. We’ll find out at the briefing tonight how it is going to affect tomorrow’s activities. 

We are on the move again tonight – the captain said we’ll go 70 miles in nine hours.

American flamingo on Floreana Island.

Floreana Island beach.

Floreana Island.

                                                    Baby sea lion and a Sally Lightfoot crab.

                                                            Us on the boat.

                                                Tonight's sunset.

Thursday, June 16

Today was a chill day. The activities were not strenuous, and we spent some downtime in Porto Ayora on Santa Cruz.

Started with breakfast at 7 am. We were three shy of our total since they had breakfast at 6 am and took off for the airport for an 11:30 am flight.

There are only 10 of us so there was space in the pangas going to shore. After we got to the pier, we took a bus to the Charles Darwin Research Station where we learned about its vital work boosting the threatened populations of unique Galapagos species including the giant tortoise.

The tortoises don’t grow very quickly so we saw baby tortoises that were born in 2022, infants born in 2021 and teenagers born in 2020. It takes them 25 years to mature and reproduce. They keep them at the facility for four years, teaching them how to climb on rocks and other sundry maneuvers so they can live in the wild. Then they release them, although there were several rather large ones on site. 

There are two kinds of tortoises: the dome tortoise and the saddleback tortoise. The dome tortoise has a short neck as it just eats grass (they’re vegetarians) on the ground. The saddleback tortoises have very long necks as they live in a desert-like environment and must eat vegetation that is above their head.

After spending about an hour at the facility, we walked back to Porto Ayoro. It wasn’t strenuous but it probably was about two miles. We mosied down the main street, bought a few things and met the group at the pier to go back to the boat.

We did pick up four more folks on our way to the research facility so we’ve a total of 14 passengers now. One couple is from LA, the other is from British Columbia. We had a delightful visit the BC folks at lunch.

We took the panga back to the pier after lunch and took a half-hour ride on a bus to the highlands. We climbed to about 1,000 feet, and we were in a cloud the entire time. It misted on and off.

We visited a private ranch that abuts the national park where the tortoises roam free so we walked through the area watching the tortoises drink, eat and lie in the water.

Then we went through a lava tube. When a volcano explodes, it creates a lava river, and the tube is what is left. It was probably about 75 feet below the surface, and it’s actually a tube – not a cave. There was one spot in which I had to duck so as not to knock my head on the ceiling of the tube. At one point, I could stick my head above it – and well, it looked like the rock was choking me.

We loaded back onto the bus and went back into town. Spent an hour there people-watching. Beth browsed some stores, all of which had the same tourist goods.

As we waited for the panga to arrive at the pier, we watched baby sharks swim around.

We also ran into a young woman whom we met on the plane who was traveling by herself. She attends a university in California, and is a master’s student in some kind of engineering. We visited with her on the plane from Guyaquil to Baltra on the Galapagos Islands. Didn’t think we would we see her again but there she was in Porto Ayura. She really likes the village, is renting a room at the hostel for $25 a night and is taking day trips.

We had our briefing at 6:45 pm – going to Floreana tomorrow, which is a 6-hour “drive.” They take the anchor up around 11 pm and be there before breakfast tomorrow. Going to do a walk, and a snorkel that promises sting rays and sharks before lunch. After lunch, we’re doing another walk during which we may see flamingos then a beach snorkel before coming back to the boat.

                                                   Our first stop was the Charles Darwin research facility. Here is Venus, our guide, explaining the process of taking giant tortoise eggs and incubating them until they're old enough to be returned to the wild.

                                            This is a saddleback tortoise at the research facility. These tortoises live in desert-like environments which requires them to eat things above their heads, thus their long necks and a shell that accommodates their reach.

                                            These tortoises were born in 2020. Not very big yet.

                                        This is Lonesome George, a domed tortoise that lived to be over 100 years old. They tried unsuccessfully to mate him, and when he died, they had a taxidermist in New York prepare him for display at the research facility.

                                                Beth in the lava tube.

                                                            Me in the lava tube.

                                                Giant land tortoises relaxing in the water on the private ranch.

                                                    People - they have to get their picture taken with the tortoise.

 

                                                This was how close we got to the tortoises. Many of them moved so we gave them space to do so (well, some of us did - it's amazing how some people are stupid).

                                                    A tortoise enjoying the mud.

                                                Porto Ayora.

                                                    Porto Ayora.

                                                        Pier, Port Ayora.

                                                        Beth in tortoise shell for tourist photo.

                                                            Baby black-tipped shark.