{"id":47,"date":"2011-01-17T22:42:02","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T02:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/?p=47"},"modified":"2011-01-25T18:43:39","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T22:43:39","slug":"the-galapagos-tour-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/2011\/01\/17\/the-galapagos-tour-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gal\u00e1pagos Tour continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

We left Quito on yesterday morning arriving at San Crist\u00f3bal Airport around noon local time (one hour earlier than EST).\u00a0\u00a0 After clearing inspections, we were spirited off to our hotel (Paradiaso Insular) to unpack.\u00a0 A nice lunch at The Playa Restaurant was followed by a long walk where we saw many Gal\u00e1pagos sea lions, \"\"<\/a>a few marine iguanas and lots of seabirds flying right through the town.\u00a0 We visited the interpretative center at GAIAS, a research institution.\u00a0 From there, we walked through the arid woodland to the height of land for a great view.\u00a0 On the way back, we stopped at a rocky shore and went snorkeling.\u00a0\"\"<\/a> Some students were able to swim with sea lions and a sea turtle.\u00a0 Back to the La Playa for dinner and then to bed for an early start.<\/p>\n

At 6 AM this morning, we went to breakfast and then boarded two boats for the 2-3 hour cruise to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz.\u00a0 The ride was a bit rough but we all arrived in reasonably good shape.\u00a0 After checking into the Mainao Hotel, we toured the Charles Darwin Research Institution to see the captive breeding program \"\"<\/a>and to admire Lonesome George, the last of his kind.<\/p>\n

After lunch, we boarded a bus and visited the highlands of Santa Cruz.\u00a0 We stopped at Los Hemolos (the twins), two large depressions caused by the release of volcanic gases.\u00a0 The forest is dominated by the plant, Scalesia<\/em>, a 40-foot tall member of the daisy family!\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>We also saw\"\"<\/a> Small-billed Ground-Finches (pictured), Gal\u00e1pagos Doves (pictured) and a Dark-billed Cuckoo.<\/p>\n

Next we went through a lava tunnel, mostly greater than 10-feet high in most cases although we did have to do a belly crawl for a couple of yards in one place.\u00a0 Along the way, we saw a couple of Gal\u00e1pagos Tortoises.\u00a0 We saw many more tortoises close by at the Ranch Primacia, a private turtle preserve. Ice cream at the gift shop afterward hit the spot.\u00a0 Back to town for a dinner at El Restaurante Chocolate (and yes the chocolate dessert was excellent!).<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, we are up early to depart at 5 AM or 6 AM for Bartholom\u00e9, a 2-3 hour boat ride north of Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left Quito on yesterday morning arriving at San Crist\u00f3bal Airport around noon local time (one hour earlier than EST).\u00a0\u00a0 After clearing inspections, we were spirited off to our hotel (Paradiaso Insular) to unpack.\u00a0 A nice lunch at The Playa … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/galapagos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}