This morning we are heading out at 9 to visit the Charles Darwin Research Centre. It’s just a short walk from our hotel. Largely this centre is dedicated to the preservation of the different species of giant tortoises found on the islands of the Galápagos archipelago. The idea is to keep the species as pure as possible to avoid extinction. Sadly with the arrival of pirates back in the early years the population of the tortoises declined as they took them for ...

Up early leaving for the airport at 7.20am. Easy drive to the airport and fairly seamless check in. We pay USD $20 at this point to get a permit to visit the islands. Flight is about 90 minutes and the time difference is 1 hour back so winning all round. Lots of checks to go through to get into this area. And we pay another USD$100 to enter supposedly going towards the conservation and protection of the habitat. Once we have passed all the screenings we meet ou...