This research station contains a national park information center, an informative museum, a baby tortoise house with incubators where you can see hatchlings and young tortoises, and a walk-in adult tortoise enclosure where you can meet the Galápagos giants face-to-face. The tiny tortoises are repatriated to their home islands when they are about four years old - some 2000 have been sent home so far.
Several of the 11 remaining subspecies of tortoise can be seen here. Lonesome George, the only surviving member of the Isla Pinta subspecies, is also here - but his chances to shack up with a female are becoming more remote as he crawls slowly into his ninth decade.
Other attractions include paths through arid-zone vegetation such as salt bush, mangroves and prickly pear, and a variety of land birds, including Darwin's finches.
