Galapagos 2008

Starting with a walk in a large lava tunnel

With a nice view of a Barn Owl sleeping in a hole at the entrance

Then a bus ride to a farm which is periodically overrun with giant tortises on migration

Two of the tortises were trying to make little tortises

Some very helpful birds sat on either side of the male's shell to cheer him on

While she thought that maybe a snack would be nice...

Look, a whole buncha giant tortise, and Beth and Michael, too

We had lunch at a local resort, where a local fishermen was mobbed by pelicans and frigate birds and iguanas decorated a fence

Then we went to the Charles Darwin Research Station to see the baby tortise, and Lonesome George who is the last male of his species and has been alone for a very long time, but he's recently produced eggs with a related species, and may be less lonesome in about 2 months...

A variety of Tortise species, notice how some of the shells are dome shaped and some are saddle shaped... "Galapagos" is a spanish word for a type of Saddle some of these shells resemble