For approximately 43 years I have lived a lie. My beloved childhood pet turtle Mohammed Moshe (M.M) wasn’t actually a turtle at all but a tortoise. I now stand corrected in the knowledge that a turtle lives in water and a tortoise on land. And Galapagos has an abundance of both kinds. It’s truly breathtaking how close you can actually come to the animals and how many you see in the wild.

Wild tortoise and the breadbaskets
A lonesome tortoise and the Breadbaskets in Urbina Bay, Isabela

A very large population of giant tortoises can be seen on Santa Cruz island. The ranch next to the El Chato Reserve got so fed up with the tortoises breaking down the cattle fences on their strolls, that they finally gave up and are now letting the tortoises roam around freely on the grounds. Naturally, what they lost in cattle breeding, they won in tourist contributions!

The oldest tortoise on the ranch was enormous, and totally unafraid
They are not nearly as catatonic as you hear
The tortoises do move but slow and with lots of breaks in between. And why not?!

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