"The Galapagos might lose some of its best researchers, and they're blaming the gift shop": It turns out income generated by souvenirs helped defray costs.
"For years, the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador, operated a small store to help it get by in lean times -- selling mostly clothing with the Charles Darwin Foundation's logo. But then it added swimsuits, sunglasses, Ecuadoran chocolate and artwork, and the local traders cried foul. A local mayor agreed and shut down the store. Now the oldest and most prominent research organization in the famed archipelago that inspired Darwin's masterwork, 'On the Origin of Species,' says that, as a result of the loss of the store, it is flat broke and the station could cease to exist before Christmas." -- Darryl Fears, the Washington Post
