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 TEN ~ Santa Cruise Island, South Plaza Island (continued)

Well, I think Pete talked Javier out of it. Besides, our mighty chariot seemed to be not in a cooperative mood.

Javier said that the hole in this tortoises shell was a bullet hole.

There was a U.S. Military Base in the Galapagos Islands during WWII, and according to Javier the soldiers would sometimes fire at tortoises. I won't even try to comment on that, except to relate a personal story.

In the mid 60's I was working at the Goldstone Deep Space Instrumentation Facility in the Mojave Desert. To get to the tracking station we had to pass through the Fort Irwin military reservation, since the tracking facility was actually on military reservation land. During critical phases of the missions we would be put on 12 hour shifts. I had the twelve noon to midnight shift during the critical landing phase of the Surveyor Moon Mission, and on one particular night as we carpooled home, we heard a bang and we stopped the station wagon to see what it was. Apparently a bullet passed through the read door where I was sitting and fortunately missed my legs and lodged in the floor. We reported it the next day, and it turned out, after an extensive investigation by the Army staff, that a young man at the guard gate saw our lights off in the distance and for some stupid reason decided to fire off a shot. Nothing better do to I suppose. But he could have easily killed one of us in that car. The young man was tried and eventually received a court-martial. So I can easily see how a tortoise in the Galapagos could be at risk.

That large group behind Pete was a bus load of tourists from Japan. All I can say is that they certainly
had an amazing array of fantastic photographic equipment. I was a tad envious. LOL Just kidding.

It was amazing watching this big guy stride across that meadow. It was awkwardness with a purpose.

Is this Tortoise heaven, or not. They certainly had a plentiful variety of food, and they seemed to eat constantly.

This was the end of our visit to this amazing tortoise reserve. Next we go to see a lava tube.

I'd never actually seen a lava tube before, especially one big enough to pass a freight train through it.

I think we were all a little surprised by what we saw. Can you imagine the amount of molten lava that
must have passed through here centuries ago. It's a little mind boggling, to consider the mechanics of
our amazing planet. It is always in a state of flux, always changing, but at a geological pace.

Everyone decides to pose for a shot in this immense lava tube. Elina and Artur go first.

In this low light level focusing was a bit of a problem.

Sometimes you get lucky on the focus. There's got to be a more scientific way of getting good focus in low light.

More of the lava tube to follow in Chapter Twenty-One, but for now I'm approaching 5 MB, my cutoff point.