Miguelito - my new old friend

We took a tricycle (a big three wheeled bike connected to a square basket with a seat in the back) to a school that had the one and only Galapagos tortoise that was not in the Galapagos but lived here in Bahia de Caraquez.

As we got to the gate it was shut. There were a few people around. We asked them how to get in. They tried to help us in but the door was locked so they told us to go talk to the person across the street in the “tienda,” that’s Spanish for store.

Ruth found the caretaker and he unlocked the gate. He led us through the garden then finally we found Miguelito, the Galapagos tortoise. As we got closer to the tortoise I asked him if I could get on him, he said yes. I climbed on top of Miguelito and sat on his hard thick shell. He started to move forward slowly and he was taking me for a ride!



Ruth asked the man how old Miguelito was and he told us that Miguelito just celebrated his 100th birthday! Wow, almost as old as my great -grandmother Anita. He said the tortoise is actually pretty young since many Galapagos turtles live to be 250 years old! As we sat there for a while in awe of this old creature, we wondered whether he was thirsty? We gave the man our water bottle and he poured water down Miguelito’s nose. Miguelito seemed to love the water and inhaled it through his nose. He has two big holes in his nose. The holes are about as wide as a pencil.



Then we went back to the boat. A few days later I went with Ruth and Maya to a Columbus Day parade only they don't really celebrate Columbus but they celebrate people from all over the world. We rode our unicycles in the parade. Afterwards, we went to visit Miguelito again and again and again.

He is our new, but old friend.