Santa Cruz Island
We started this brand new day on board National Geographic Islander anchored at Academy Bay in front of Puerto Ayora, the economic capital of Galápagos.
After breakfast we had a fantastic visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station. In the research center, we had the opportunity to see baby giant tortoises, saddle back tortoises from Española Island and the famous Lonesome George. Then after, we had the opportunity to walk to town and see a great variety of plants, including poison apple trees, yellow Cordia, giant prickly pear cactus, and the imposing candelabra cactus. Near noon we boarded buses which took us to the highlands of Santa Cruz. As we drove up hill we could see how the vegetation changed little by little as we gained elevation.
Once there, the landscape was incredible. We walked through a lava tunnel with plenty of stalactite and stalagmite formations that made the scene scary but beautiful at the same time. Right after, to put ourselves together again, we had a delicious lunch at a restaurant on a farm – all the food here was made with local goods. Then we went for a walk to find tortoises in the wild roaming through the forest. We spotted a woodpecker finch as well, deep through the giant daisy trees (Scalesia pedunculata) forest.
On the way back to shore we had time to visit the shopping area of the town and to blend with the local population, until six in the afternoon, when we returned home to our mother ship. This was another great day in paradise!
