Santa Cruz is the last of the four inhabited islands to have been colonized, by a small group of Norwegians in the year of 1926, and it is now the most inhabited island in Galapagos.

The island of Baltra was rented by the United States in the Second World War, who built a great landing strip, which has nowadays been reconstructed by the Ecuadorian government for commercial flights.

In 1959 Galápagos was declared a National Park. Its administrative base is located in Academy Bay, as are the headquarters of the Charles Darwin Research Station, thus instigating a massive immigration to the area. Puerto (Port) Ayora is the economic capital of the archipelago, with eight thousand inhabitants.

We visited both Puerto Ayora (see the photo) and the Charles Darwin Research Station today.