Santa Cruz
Yes, this is indeed the rainy season! And today we got drenched on at least three separate occasions, with time and warmth between the showers—luckily—for our clothes to dry out. The wet wasn’t really so bad, and thus far this week we have stayed practically dry; honestly a good drenching was long overdue! Today, in the highlands of Santa Cruz I saw rushing streams of fresh water and as we drove along the road through the agricultural zone, rocks tumbling in runoff rivulets that formed waterfalls! Galápagos waterfalls—wow!
We started the day (in a slow and hesitant rain that came and went) with an interesting visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station. Here we observed both giant tortoises and tiny tortoise hatchlings. When the CDRS was established in the 60’s and scientists inventoried the wild tortoise populations on the diverse islands, they were alarmed to find that several populations were dangerously small. Since then the Station and the National Park have worked together to breed the most endangered tortoises in captivity and repatriate them to the islands of their origin. We learned today that “Super Diego,” a male tortoise that was returned to the islands from the San Diego Zoo, has done more than his fair share in bringing a total population of Española tortoise for 15 adult individuals to the current wild population of more than 2000!
After a pleasant walk through the bustling town, stopping to shop and photograph as we wished, we had a pineapple juice in “The Rock” café and boarded buses that took us to the agricultural town of Bella Vista. Here we sampled local coffee, sugar cane juice, and liquor, and delicious tree ripened bananas while the heavens opened up and literally flooded this normally arid island. We drove on up further into the highlands to “Rancho El Chato” farm where the intrepid among us crossed a quarter of a mile through a lava tube, ducking under low ledges, carefully avoiding underground puddles and patches of mud and climbing out to find a lavish and well-deserved lunch buffet.
Some of us had our pictures taken in a huge, empty tortoise shell while it rained yet again, and those who chose to “do-it-all” fitted themselves with rubber boots and re-boarded the buses for the short drive to another farm where a dozen or so giant tortoises were enjoying the rain and lush green grasses.
Later, back again in town, and the rain had stopped, so we made some final purchases before we returned contentedly to the National Geographic Islander for showers, our recap, briefing and dinner. After the meal we had a festive evening with delightful music and dancing led by a local group, “EcoArte.” Another great day in las islas encantadas!
