Santa Cruz Island
Today we started our day in Academy Bay, on the south end of Santa Cruz Island. After our breakfast we headed to the giant tortoises breeding center, which is one of the most successful conservation program in the whole planet. There we learned how the National Park rangers succeeded in the laborious mission of breeding tortoises in captivity, simulating the same conditions that they find in the wild. Also we got the chance to meet two of the most famous tortoises in the world, which are lonesome George (last individual from Pinta Island species) and Diego (most successful breeder from Española Island). The weather was not overly warm, making the visit very enjoyable. Later on we continue our journey to the highlands of Santa Cruz. We did a stop on a locally own sugar mill, where we learned how they process the sugar cane into several very tasty products such as raw sugar, sugar cane liquor and organic coffee. After this very instructive stop we continue to the Altair restaurant where we were delighted with a succulent lunch surrounded by beautiful gardens.
In the afternoon the options were many. The do-it-all option included a visit to the giant tortoise reserve and an interesting visit to an incredible volcanic formations know as the Gemelos.
The visit to the Steve Divine’s farm exceeded our expectations; Giant tortoises are the largest reptiles that move in these vast green lands were food supply is available at any movement they can do. This is the reason of why this farm decided to leave a preserved area for this great herbivorous. Some of them may reach 200 years old weighting 600 pounds, males are the largest, females are smaller with some shiny carapaces and some are recognizable at the distance. The day was over casted at that time, typical conditions of the Garua season (drizzling season).
Later on we headed to the top of Santa Cruz where pit craters are located. In this place we found these astonishing volcanic formation that are the result of a collapse of the top of an empty magmatic chamber. The Galápagos National Park is trying to preserve a good portion of the original habitat of Scalesia plants that offer a good nesting opportunity to Darwin finches and some orchids found nowhere else in the world. For now the rain helps the wildlife in many ways and some of the birds are reproducing faster as they need the food provided by flowers and seeds.
At the end of the afternoon some of our guest decided to head back to National Geographic Endeavour while others spent more time in Puerto Ayora for a last call shopping. We had a great day in Santa Cruz Island.
