CDRS is both a research station and a breeding and repopulation center for saddleback tortoises as well as the final resting place of "Lonesome George." George was the last of the Pinta island giant tortoises and lived at the Darwin Station from 1972 until he passed away in 2012. Funny thing, he did not die in vain, because a US comedian, George Gobel, heard the story and adopted the same nickname in the 1950s. That raised awareness of the Galapagos tortiose's situation, which in turn lead to donations to the center (and other preservation centers) to increase by an order of magnitude.
No wonder they have an entire room dedicated to his memory, along with his taxidermied body (or so they said, it kind of looks like a statue to us). The best thing about it ... the room was air conditioned and it was, as the English say, "bloody hot" outside.
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Afterwards, we had a chance to wander around the town a bit. We were about ten feet off the CDRS campus when we found our traditional trip momentos (normally a painting) in an upscale art shop, Samay Latin Art. You can guess which was my pick and which was Alison's.
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The rest of the town was nice, with the harbor in particular being fun with soaring frigate birds and sea lions sleeping under park benchs.
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We drove inland around noon, ending at a cattle ranch that had a covered patio that looked like it was used for rustic wedding receptions, and had lunch there, then drove to two giant sinkholes in the center of the island, known as "the big sinkholes." No, really Los Gemelos, which means "twin craters" and isn't much better. They were formed by large magma chambers that collapsed. They were cool, and the surrounding vegitation in the trails leading back and forth between the two of them looked like something out of a Disney movie.
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Then it was a very bumpy drive to El Chato 2 private ecological reserve, which in English means "Rancher that realized he'd make a lot more money with tourists than with cattle." But there were still a lot of grazing animals.
Along with the the (wait for it) tortoises, there were a few other species and some giant lava tubes you could hike through.
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Then we were back on the boat for the evening meal and the long, overnight leg to Moreno Point on Isabella Island for day 4.