Galapagos, Ecuador - Cycling for Turtles

Santa Cruz Highlands
The Santa Cruz highlands are another ecosystem entirely.  They're 2,000 feet above sea level and under perpetual clouds, it seems.  It is where all the farms are - including the turtle farms.  We rented some bikes and grabbed a pick-up taxi to take us to the top.

We started at the "twins" - two large craters that were caused by underground lava flows which, after cooling and contracting, created instability in the ground above.

It was so foggy that the photos didn't come out well.

We then began our ride to the turtle farm, the last few miles on dirt roads going steeply downhill.  The whole glide down I was thinking "we've got to climb back up this at some point."

The turtles graze in pastureland just like cows.  This one slid under the barbed wire fence to get some better grass at the edge of the road.  They're are even bigger than you expect.  This guy was at least 4 feet long.

These land turtles are not the famed ones that the islands were named after.  There are a different variety that have a saddle shaped shell and the ancient word in Spanish for saddle is galapago

When we began our climb up, the mist had turned to a drizzle and puddles were beginning to form.  For some reason that makes no sense, our bikes had no fenders.

Out on the main road, we flew down the bike paths at top speed, eating the spray from our tires - a mixture of water, mud, gravel and horse dung.

The famed Singaporean clean freak wasn't too happy.  However, once home, after having showered and changed she claimed to have had a great time.