Wildlife Report
Giant tortoise
Giant tortoise
Giant tortoise
Giant tortoise
Giant tortoise
Giant tortoise
Giant tortoise
And those are just the ones we photographed. We probably saw over twenty. Today was our day for wildlife, and not just tortoises- just within the very brief trip from the airport to the boat that would take us between two islands, we saw an iguana, a frigate bird, pelicans, and a shark.
So here's the summary of our day:
First, we headed off to the airport. After taking a plane to the Galapagos- a surprisingly long two-hour flight- we drove to a boat that took us across the sea to another island of the Galactic Octopus, as my dad put it- a surprisingly short distance. You could easily see the other shore from your bank. The sea appeared to be nothing more than a river.
From there, we started the long drive to our tent (with a slight hindrance in the form of a giant tortoise in the middle of the road). Yes, we're staying in a tent. Along the way, we paused for lunch and subsequently took a hike. The hike was when we saw most of those tortoises. We also learned many fascinating things about giant tortoises. For instance, the males are about three times larger than the females, and all of them live up to 150 years. The younger they are, the more wrinkles they have on their shell.
Pictured below is one of the trees that we encountered, with a sign describing it. I'm not sure if I'll ever eat apples again...
In the final stretches of our hike, we encountered a pond covered in red algae. We spotted some ducks, baby ducks, and "water chickens" on the lake. The lake appeared solid, but ducks swam through the algae seemingly unhindered.
By the way, the restaurant that we ate at had a real shell of a giant tortoise in it. It had a surprisingly wooden texture to it, and was lighter than it appeared.
The rest was just more driving and chilling in our tent.
Spanish contest standings:
Aidan- 9
Mom- 2
Dad- 13
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