Galapagos comes to a close

Well, today is our last full day on the Galapagos. Tomorrow we fly out to Quito and the next day i head for home. Today we visited the Charles Darwin station which is a preserve and is doing research on the giant tortoises. We got to see a lot of the babies that are being raised there and then the giant tortuga's -- and they really are big. They hiss if you get too close, but i did get to pet the neck of one when the guide looked the other way. For lunch we went to see a local family, a Black family and there are very few of them on the islands, for lunch. The mother made a fish cake for an appetizer and then had lasagna for the main course. It was a very poor family and the house was built by the father and had a corrugated tin roof. Well, after lunch we spotted a guitar in the corner and asked the teenage son if he would play for us. He did and sang too. We then asked the mother and father and pretty soon the family was in a great, happy song about their God. We then did some shopping in this small town on the water.
In the afternoon we went up into the hills where the giant tortoises live. We spotted many and i took a ton of pictures of these gentle giants. This was really something we all had been looking forward to here in the Galapagos -- finally to see the giants of this land. To close our day we went into the earth, down into a lava tube -- which looks like a cave that meanders under the surface. The lava tubes are formed when a volcano releases gas and lava up through cracks in the earth. The lava hardens on the walls and when it is over tubes or caves remain.
Well, folks, that's about all. Tomorrow i leave early in the morning. Thanks for tuning in.
Ciao!!