The buses arrived a bit late from the airport with the rest of the group, probably due to a couple of flight delays, but it was so pleasant at the Rancho we were very relaxed once and in no hurry at all. An “Isabella II” sign in the restaurant let us know we were in exactly the right place so we didn’t need to worry about the delay. This was of one of the many, many small but very important details that Metropolitan Touring never misses. Once the group arrived, Lola, one of three guides who sailed with us on the ship, took us for a 20- minute walk around the animals, explaining habitats and morphologies and taking some fantastic pictures. There are again more than 3,500 giant tortoises on Santa Cruz and about 15,000 in the Galapagos as a whole, thanks to Herculean efforts by humans. Population numbers are down due to the historic practice of taking the animals aboard ship as an ever-fresh food source and even more so due problems with invasive species that eat tortoise eggs, young or eat the plants they need to survive. Ongoing, mostly-successful efforts eradicate black rats and feral cats, dogs, pigs and goats. Already, more savanna-like grasslands and fewer trees can be seen where tortoise populations have rebounded, as their large bodies push over new shoots as they browse. The care that is taken with this animal here is nothing short of incredible. Females lay a clutch of 10-15 eggs every one to two years. These hatch in about 40 days and the babies are on their own and very vulnerable to all sorts of predators.
©Stephanie Scheffler
However, a core of conservationists are dedicated to finding and digging up the clutches, transporting them to the Fausto Llerena Breeding Center down near the sea front and incubating the eggs in safety there. This was our next stop. Guides explained more about the process of caring for and raising the animals, their life cycles, and the threats that they had to overcome. There are 15 different species of Galapagos tortoises and all are represented at the center. Incredibly, they are cared for until they are 16 years old before they are released back into the correct island habitat for their species. Fully 25% of the animals living in the wild on in the islands were hatched at the center. After a pleasant afternoon among the tortoises, we boarded the bus for the pier and headed out to the Isabella II. From a distance she looks tiny, especially if you are accustomed to big cruise ships, but inside she is surprisingly spacious and comfortable. The cabins are very nicely appointed and organized with plenty of space for storage. No detail has been overlooked from clear instructions for how to use the (slightly different) showers knobs to plenty of bathroom shelf space to store toiletries. The Isabella II is a luxury motor yacht. As we learned in a diverting half-hour when we visited with the captain and first mate on the bridge later on as they navigated the ship, she was originally built as a cargo ship in New Orleans in 1979, this humble beginning giving her a 1,000 horsepower engine. It was later refitted as an excursion yacht in Pensacola in 1988. Every aspect of the ship is in excellent condition and she shows absolutely no signs of wear and tear.
©Stephanie Scheffler
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