Day 10 – Jan 23 – Leaving Galapagos.

We went to the Darwin Center in the morning before leaving for our flight back. Darwin had done a lot of his work in Galapagos because it had unique species that were undisturbed by outsiders. Further, each island evolved independently. For example, there are 14 distinct species of giant tortoises. The ones in the highlands have short necks and a shell that is not too high in the front, because food is easy to reach. The ones in the lowlands have long necks and an arch in the front of the shell because they have to reach upward for food higher off the ground.

I've read that the science community think Darwin may have made more remarkable contributions than even Einstein. The popular summary that the public often sees that he said than man evolved from apes upsets me because it misses the important parts. I say a quote that I really liked that seems a better summary: "the successful species long term will not been the most intelligent nor the strongest, but the one that best adapts to environmental changes."

We saw lots of tortoises here. There was one section where 6 males, all at least 2 feet wide, 3 feet long, and 2 feet high were active and eating. We have pictures of us within a foot or so of them.

We had two flights back to Equador. We spent the night in the capital city of Quito.

We had a nice dinner at a local hotel, and had a surprise half hour of opera singers at our table.