Santa Cruz Island
Today we had a full day in Santa Cruz Island! What a place to explore! Santa Cruz is the place where nature and society mix and live in balance with each other.
In the morning we visited the breeding center for giant tortoises. What a great opportunity to see from close the efforts that the National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station have been putting together to restore the unique ecosystems of the islands! We were able to see some tortoises from different islands, some famous ones and many little ones waiting to become big enough to go back to their original island.
Later we have some time to explore the streets of Puerto Ayora. Puerto Ayora is a charming and colorful town on Santa Cruz Island. It is most developed town of the islands as well, it is home of Ecuadorians from all different regions of the country and for some foreign families that came to Galapagos years ago. Puerto Ayora became the economical center of the archipelago, maybe due to the proximity to the airport on Baltra or maybe because the Charles Darwin Station and the Galapagos National Park headquarters are there. By walking on its streets you can see the influence of the different cultures living in Puerto Ayora. The fishing market was a highlight of our morning.
We had more to visit before our lunch! Our buses took us to the highlands where the agriculture activities take place. We visited one of the old families that still today get their products in a very artisanal way. We taste some homemade brown sugar, coffee and alcohol and with a “Salud!” we left. Our next stop was an amazing lava tube, home to the magnificent barn owl, which came to the outside part of the tube to say goodbye.
Lunch was at a farm as well; from there we enjoyed a wonderful view and got energy to explore more of the humid zone of vegetation of Santa Cruz. This area gets its water from the clouds that are stopped by the altitude of the islands. With the water there is more vegetation, and where you have water and vegetation… you can find tortoises! We shared our afternoon with this emblematic reptile. Some of us sat next to one and observed it for an hour; some of us started our challenge of how many tortoises we could count in one hour! Others went bird watching; many finches live here including the interesting woodpecker finch, which we found!
What a place! What an experience!
To finish our day, some guests came onboard! Dancers and musicians from town came to perform for us. With that beautiful music in our heads, we went to bed. Goodnight, tortoises! Goodnight, Galapagos! Thanks for another great day!
