Santa Cruz Island
Today we anchored in Academy Bay early in the morning, then disembarked on the national park dock in order to visit the famous Charles Darwin Research Center. On the dock were many marine iguanas basking, and walking along the road we found a very unusual great blue heron adult, picking up twigs and branches to be used building a nest somewhere around there.
During the visit to the corrals of breeding center Fausto LLerena, we were feeling the very high temperature and the humidity typical of this time of the year, specifically in the month of February.
However the tortoises were walking around inside of the pens but preferred to look for some nice shade under the bushes.
After the visit to the center the guests were having a nice time visiting the village of Puerto Ayora, in which it was possible to see the effects of the recent elections as the remains of the propaganda of different candidates was everywhere. After meeting in the Silverstein Hotel we moved to the highlands visiting “El Trapiche” farm and each guest tasted delicious cheese, panela, bananas, as well as drank the strong “aguardiente,” or the very sweet sugar cane juice with lemon. Kids were enjoying themselves with the local chickens and their chicks. They learn also about the agriculture in the Galapagos with different introduced plants as coffee, sugar cane, bananas, Spanish cedar, castor bean, bamboo, watermelons, guavas, etc.
After the lunch on another farm, we took a bus ride to the pit craters called “the twins,” because they are two sinkholes at both sides of the main road. Here was the best place to not only see these dramatic volcanic formations but also the very special flora at this altitude, and also different kind of land birds.
Also we visited another property called “el Manzanillo” which is located at the very border with the National Park area that is the natural habitat of the Galapagos giant tortoises, and fortunately we found about eleven of them grazing and walking around (even when this is not the best time of the year to see so many). At least there was one juvenile of about ten or twelve years old, and four big males middle age, and the rest of the tortoises were all females. There was also a beautiful pond of fresh water covered with a red carpet of a water ferns called “Azolla,” and the trees of guayabilos were decorated with very long greenish beard like liquens and also very dark liverworts. Fortunately for us the soil was completely dry and there was a very sunny and blue sky this afternoon.
We stopped on the way in the road to visit the lava tunnel that is part of the property of “el Manzanillo.” This lava tube is also a very interesting volcanic formation but is much smaller than the others on the island, but is more natural, and some guests walked inside carefully as far as is possible.
Finally we came back to Puerto Ayora later in the afternoon to find the town full of activities, and around the municipal dock many tourists from other vessels were meeting and taking Zodiacs back to their respective boats. Once on board we witnessed a wonderful sunset and we felt so happy to be finishing one more fabulous day in this extraordinary archipelago.
