Santa Cruz and North Seymour Islands
An exciting early morning start, this time to look for the spectacular and unique Galápagos giant land tortoise. We left the Islander at six thirty in the morning heading to the highlands of Santa Cruz on a bus which will drop us in tortoise territory. We wandered around a natural fresh water pond where land tortoises roam freely and at peace in their lush environment. We saw many large males, some eating and others drinking from the pond, and two very young ones, around seven years old.
After sharing some unforgettable moments with these sweet and gentle giants, we headed to a lava tube where we had an interesting hike and enjoyed our minute of silence at eight feet under the ground. The tunnel’s exit led us to a view point where the restaurant with our breakfast was waiting for us.
Once we had all recovered our strength with this meal, we headed back to the town of Puerto Ayora where we finally had the chance to do some shopping. Some of us had been missing this activity!
Back on board again, we dined on lunch and after a restoring siesta, we attended a most interesting presentation about Charles Darwin by our expedition leader Lynn Fowler. The Islander was navigating while all this was happening on board, and we anchored at 4 pm off North Seymour Island.
On the afternoon’s outing we found many nesting frigate birds, land iguanas, marine iguanas, swallow-tailed gulls, courting blue-footed boobies and dozens of baby sea lions with their mothers. A marvelous sunset was the finale to what had been a wonderful day!
An exciting early morning start, this time to look for the spectacular and unique Galápagos giant land tortoise. We left the Islander at six thirty in the morning heading to the highlands of Santa Cruz on a bus which will drop us in tortoise territory. We wandered around a natural fresh water pond where land tortoises roam freely and at peace in their lush environment. We saw many large males, some eating and others drinking from the pond, and two very young ones, around seven years old.
After sharing some unforgettable moments with these sweet and gentle giants, we headed to a lava tube where we had an interesting hike and enjoyed our minute of silence at eight feet under the ground. The tunnel’s exit led us to a view point where the restaurant with our breakfast was waiting for us.
Once we had all recovered our strength with this meal, we headed back to the town of Puerto Ayora where we finally had the chance to do some shopping. Some of us had been missing this activity!
Back on board again, we dined on lunch and after a restoring siesta, we attended a most interesting presentation about Charles Darwin by our expedition leader Lynn Fowler. The Islander was navigating while all this was happening on board, and we anchored at 4 pm off North Seymour Island.
On the afternoon’s outing we found many nesting frigate birds, land iguanas, marine iguanas, swallow-tailed gulls, courting blue-footed boobies and dozens of baby sea lions with their mothers. A marvelous sunset was the finale to what had been a wonderful day!
