Live from... Silver Origin. Sept. 16-23, 2023

twangster · September 21, 2023

Destination talk in the evening followed by dinner at 7:30pm.

Tomorrow is going to be giant!

Ciaranaman · September 22, 2023

This has been a completely stunning pictorial of your trip! A dream trip for me. Thank you for taking the time to post this. Like everyone else, I've been thoroughly enjoying the ride!

~Bernadette

twangster · September 22, 2023

Day Five - Santa Cruz Highlands, Puerto Ayora

Morning greets us with the sights and sounds of an active harbor. After days of seeing pretty much only our own excursions zodiacs filled with our own Silver Origin guests suddenly we are back in the real world.

Puerto Ayora is a busy tourist port for many fly in guests to the Galapagos Islands.

The Silver Origin zodiacs bring us to the pier in town

We remain paired with our guide who was on the zodiac with us on the ride in just as we have been at every stop up to today. We walk as a group to waiting busses dedicated to the Silver Origin.

We ride through town and start climbing up to the highlands. The town begins to fade and the vegetation changes several times as we climb higher to our destination.

After 30 minutes or so the bus makes a left turn onto a dirt road.

After another six or seven minutes we start to see the reason why we came here today. The Giant Tortoise. This one and several others have been wandering the countryside outside the bus window.

kej1 · September 22, 2023

Can’t thank you enough for your amazing photos and commentary.

twangster · September 22, 2023

Montemar is a private company so this will be the first time we aren't under the auspices of the National Park of the Galapagos.

It is a bit of a cultivated experience compared to our other stops but I imagine that has a lot to do with ensuring guests can actually see Giant Tortoises on a consistent basis as opposed to taking a hundred guests to a field somewhere and hoping to see one Giant Tortoise.

As it so happens the land of Montemar is on the migration path of the Giant Tortoise as they make their way to the sea to lay eggs before returning to the Highlands of Santa Cruz. In this respect it's not a zoo with caged animals that can't ever leave. These are wild Tortoises that do leave and make the 50 mile trek to the sea every year to lay eggs near the beach before returning to the Highlands.

It doesn't take long to find what we are looking for.

They are everywhere in every direction.

Our guide offers to take photos with our phones after explaining how to circle around behind the Tortoise while keeping a distance.

Edited September 22, 2023 by twangster

twangster · September 22, 2023

We remain in our small groups of ten or so with our guides from the ship who we pretty much know on a first name basis at this point.

Another group from our ship is with their guide who may have led a snorkel or land tour for me at one stop or another.

Tortoises love mud baths. Since they are slow moving and low to the ground they are easy targets for ticks and other pests but a coating of mud helps to protect their underbellies.

twangster · September 22, 2023

Tortoises are everywhere!

A neighboring part of land has horses.

Our guide has a seed pod from a local tree. Since we are on private land our guides are able to show us some things they would not be able to out in the Galapagos park.

We continue to explore the private land into an area with coffee bean trees.

Oh look, a Giant Tortoise is lumbering through the forest.

twangster · September 22, 2023

We continue to explore the area.

The horses a bit closer.

Montemar also is a coffee plantation. They host a coffee tasting for our benefit.

A Montemar representative walks us through the coffee tasting process.

Afterwards we are free to wander on our own, do some shopping with the local artisans they brought in or use the bathroom.

The view to the sea from our perch in the highlands of Santa Cruz. The Tortoises make the fifty mile trek to lay their eggs.

Edited September 22, 2023 by twangster

twangster · September 22, 2023

We board our bus back to the harbor.

The bus was comfortable with air conditioning.

A Sea Turtle makes a meal cleaning the growth off the dock.

After our zodiac ride back to the ship Ecuadorian chocolate is waiting for us as we step on board.

Along with some sparkling wine.

Edited September 22, 2023 by twangster

twangster · September 22, 2023

Lunch before we ride back to shore for the afternoon excursion, shopping, both or staying on board to do whatever.

labrasett · September 22, 2023

What a joy this post and the pictures have been, so lovely to relive our trip in March this year. Thank you so much.

twangster · September 22, 2023

After lunch it was back on the zodiacs for a ride into town for a visit to the breeding center for Giant Tortoises at the Charles Darwin Research Station.

A guide escorted us to waiting busses for a 10 minute ride through to the edge of town.

Busses are not allowed within the research station so it was a 10 minute walk into the park.

twangster · September 22, 2023

The Tortoises here are markedly different than the Giant Tortoises we saw in the morning. There are a number of different species of Galapagos Giant Tortoises. The breeding center makes a point of managing hatchlings from different islands to maintain and in some cases reintroduce a variation from a specific island.

twangster · September 22, 2023

The baby Tortoises are kept safe within a breeding enclosure until they are old enough to fend for themselves.

The babies in this enclosure are from the island of Espanola and were born in 2020. Soon they will be moved to the island of Espanola where they will live for the rest of their lives.

Another group from the island of Floreana born in 2023.

These are from the variation found on the island of Santiago also born in 2023.

Just a few years old but you already see they are miniature versions of what we have been seeing up to this point.

Edited September 22, 2023 by twangster

twangster · September 22, 2023

Our Silver Origin guide Jeffo explains how the breeding center works taking freshly laid eggs and bringing them back to the breeding station where they are carefully incubated with a higher success rate then they would achieve if left alone in nature.

They can control the sex of the hatchlings by controlling the temperature, 28°C produces males and 29.5°C produces females. When they are trying to rebuild a population they tend to produce more females than males by a three to one ratio.

twangster · September 22, 2023

Lonesome George is a famous Giant Tortoise who was discovered in the 1970's alone on a Galapagos island having had the entire Giant Tortoise population on that island wiped out by humans. It was widely thought there were no more of his kind in existence.

In the early 1970's a researcher working unrelated to Giant Tortoises was on Pinta island. He set up camp only to find this Giant Tortoise coming into his camp and trying to eat some of his things. This went on night after night until it was time for the researcher to go back to the research station.

Once there he was telling stories about this Giant Tortoise on Pinta that was coming into is camp every day. Unaware of the plight of the Pinta Giant Tortoises other researchers at first didn't believe him so they went off to the darkroom to develop some film.

Imagine the excitement among Giant Tortoise researchers when they discovered a living Giant Tortoise on Pinta. Unfortunately we was the last of his species and so he lived out the rest of his life at the Charles Darwin Research Station hoping one day they might find a female from Pinta. That never happened and in 2012 he died.

In honor of Lonesome George and to highlight the importance of conservation efforts they have set up a viewing area for him.

twangster · September 22, 2023

Afterwards we were free to continue exploring the area of the research station, we could ride the bus back to the ship or we could walk the 1km back to the ship down the main street of town past restaurants and shops.

I chose the walking on my own option.

It wasn't long until I found my way back to the pier where our zodiacs were waiting.

I saw some baby black tipped sharks but wasn't fast enough to capture them. Instead it's our old friend the Sea Lion.

Back on the ship I set out my shopping for the day including some Montemar coffee, a small Blue Footed Booby carving and a print I purchased in the town on the walk back.

The artist, Sarah Darling, who painted it was in her shop and she talked about her art and various pieces around her shop.

twangster · September 22, 2023

Another fascinating lecture in the evening followed by our destination talk for tomorrow. Four excursions tomorrow. A nature walk, morning snorkel, afternoon snorkel and a zodiac tour.

Afterwards I somehow found myself in the company of four lovely ladies for dinner at The Grill on deck 7.

Hot Rocks - Ecuadorian Pork with a number of wonderful Ecuadorian appetizers we all shared.

The lights of Puerto Ayora as I ventured to the aft of the ship before heading to my suite.

clochette · September 22, 2023

thank you so much for taking the time to share your trip. Your pictures are just incredible and it sounds like a wonderful experience. I am curious how many passengers are onboard?

twangster · September 22, 2023

4 hours ago, clochette said:

thank you so much for taking the time to share your trip. Your pictures are just incredible and it sounds like a wonderful experience. I am curious how many passengers are onboard?

There are 79 this sailing but the crew tell me it's been at capacity for several weeks.

jpalbny · September 23, 2023

7 hours ago, twangster said:

Lonesome George is a famous Giant Tortoise who was discovered in the 1970's alone on a Galapagos island having had the entire Giant Tortoise population on that island wiped out by humans. It was widely thought there were no more of his kind in existence.

In the early 1970's a researcher working unrelated to Giant Tortoises was on Pinta island. He set up camp only to find this Giant Tortoise coming into his camp and trying to eat some of his things. This went on night after night until it was time for the researcher to go back to the research station.

Once there he was telling stories about this Giant Tortoise on Pinta that was coming into is camp every day. Unaware of the plight of the Pinta Giant Tortoises other researchers at first didn't believe him so they went off to the darkroom to develop some film.

Imagine the excitement among Giant Tortoise researchers when they discovered a living Giant Tortoise on Pinta. Unfortunately we was the last of his species and so he lived out the rest of his life at the Charles Darwin Research Station hoping one day they might find a female from Pinta. That never happened and in 2012 he died.

In honor of Lonesome George and to highlight the importance of conservation efforts they have set up a viewing area for him.

We were lucky enough to see Lonesome George when he was still alive, in 2011.

twangster · September 23, 2023

It's currently the last night of the cruise and I'm two days behind. It's been a busy two days so I haven't had a lot of time to post.

Early time off the ship and flight back to Guayaquil tomorrow so it may be a day or two before I continue.

jpalbny · September 23, 2023

You've done a remarkable job with your posts just to be "only" two days behind. Safe travels back to the mainland and we all look forward to the rest of your posts!

twangster · September 23, 2023

Day Six - Santa Fe and Gardner Bay, Española

We start today with a nature walk on Sante Fe island followed by a snorkel, lunch on the ship while we reposition to Española for an afternoon snorkel and zodiac tour.

It starts with a wet landing on the beach. We were advised to bring hiking footwear to change into but I could have done the hike in my closed toe water shoes.