Santa Cruz Island
After navigating all night we arrived at Academy Bay on the island of Santa Cruz very early in the morning. We began our day going to the Galápagos giant tortoise breeding center. We had the chance to see young tortoises in their pens as well as in their adaptation corral. It was great to learn more about this project and how the park is trying to restore the different populations of tortoises by taking back these juveniles to the island of their parents’ origin by the age of four years. A large number of tortoises go on to survive in the wild, since the transition is not as difficult after spending two years in the adaptation corral.
After looking at the tortoises in their corrals, we also went to the town of Puerto Ayora and got on local buses to go to the highlands; there some of our guests went biking while others went to a local sugar cane mill. We call this place “Trapiche” as here sugar cane juice is distilled into “aguardiente,” which is the local drink, very strong and tasty.
We had lunch in a local restaurant in the highlands, and after that we put on rubber boots and headed to a local farm that had wild Galápagos giant tortoises. There was a lot of mud, but the effort was well compensated as we saw several tortoises peacefully grazing and walking in this place.
We marveled at the tortoises today, at their calm way of being that one could sit and watch one for an entire day and not get bored. The day is over but tomorrow we are beginning a new adventure.
