Sadly, I left the Galapagos today and headed back to Quito for 2 nights, where I was greeted by a landslide of emails (fortunately most of it eminently deletable) and a keen desire to post my tales of the last week.

As I write this I am showered and sitting up in a lovely soft bed with lots of fluffy pillow to snuggle into (there was only one small one in the boat so this is a treat) enjoying the peace and quiet with my hotel room strewn with my stuff, as the same time as having a day of feeling wobbly from being mostly on and off boats for the past week. Is there a boating equivalent to the air travellers joy of jet lag I wonder? I hope tomorrow will be steadier.

Today's rabbiting on won't be long - a. Because the idea of sleeping without a set time for breakfast sounds very attractive and b. There isn't that much to report if I spare you my closer than a whisker near death experience with a bus in a bus-only track on the way to the local supermarket this evening, or how silly this hotel is (remember, it has multiple awards) as it doesn't provide a bottle opener in the minibar so I can open a beer. During my last stay I convinced the room service people to give me one, but tonight the guy came, opened the beer and wouldn't leave the opener!! Lucky I had a complementary beer in the bar earlier and only wanted one other. Too bad if I was having a mini-bar party. :)

Anyway, the day started early with 5.30 breakfast before being ready to leave at 6.00 am and head across to the port on the island of Santa Cruz, Puerto Ayero, where those of us leaving the QB today had an early morning tour of the Charles Darwin Research Centre to look forward to before leaving. We were greeted on land by Maria the guide who met us when I landed in Balta a week ago, though it seems like a lifetime given all that I have done, learnt and not forgetting eaten, in the mean time.

There were seven of us who Maria hustled us onto a bus that took us through Puerto Ayero to the entrance of the research centre. Then a 10 minute walk to the first exhibits at which we learnt about the work of the centre focusing on restoring the endemic populations of iguanas and tortoises to the islands where populations have been lost because of the impact of man (directly by harvesting endemic species for food, oil, fur etc, and indirectly through the introduction of domestic and feral animals such as pigs, goats, rats, cats and dogs).

Of particular interest was hearing about 'Lonesome George' who is thought to have been the last of a sub-species from Espanola. The centre had gone to a lot of trouble to find females for George and had thought he was not the mating type until they tried him with females from another island and had more luck with his new girl friends. Sadly through none of the eggs resulted in babies. While George did pass away nearly 2.5 years ago, because tortoise sperm can last for some years, there is still some hope that one of George's widows will do the right thing and produce more eggs.

We also saw 5 of other male giant tortoises that were kept as pets many years ago but as they are not certain which island they come from they aren't being used in the centre's breeding progress. Hopefully there will a DNA testing method to help with this in due course.

And finally we saw some baby tortoises that are the result of successful breeding programs and which will be released to the wild in due course. They are very cute and quite active compared with the adults.

From there I did the reverse of my trip to meet the boat a week ago - a 40 minute bus ride across the island, 10 minute ferry ride to Balta Island and 10 minute bus trip to the airport. Maria organised a smooth check in, there was time for a coffee and a peruse of the souvenir shops (yes I did give in - 1 T-shirt and a small tortoise for my collection. There may be more.)

Flight was on time and I managed 2 full Game of Thrones episodes (I am still way behind and must watch th rest of the series which I have) bag arrived OK and I was met by the tour people and the on the long drive to the hotel. Later on a debrief and necking arrangements with the tour contact here in Quito.

Oh and a doggy moment today. This lovely on was at the airport and was set loose in the da to check passenger bags just before me the flight boarded. 

You know the rest.

And one final comment about the hotel - it's the same hotel as before and the room is the same with one exception - no raised platform, for the couch by the window this time, which is better, and a funkier chair and tables. See pic.

Night.