The ship faces a new landscape; there are buildings and coconut palms, sailboats and yachts, all with a dark green volcano background and turquoise water foreground. This is also the Galapagos Islands, but it is one of the inhabited islands, the home of many of Polaris crewmembers and staff. It is a place where people are raised with a profound respect for nature. Kids jump off the dock, while iguanas sunbathe and our guests disembark. This is Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island.
Along the coast we recognize those plants present on some other islands as well: mangroves, holy trees, prickly pear cactus, candelabra cactus. But we go even higher, to the humid area of this old, extinct volcano. The highlands also have special endemic vegetation. However, introduced plants can be impressive too.
Before Galapagos was a National Park, people brought a few species of plants. My favorite one is the Balsa tree (Ochroma pyramidale). It was cultivated for its lightweight wood known as "balsa", but that product has never become a commercial success in the archipelago. The trees can be 30 meters high, with an inspiring flattened crown. They look like hermit giants in the middle of a low vegetation forest. It is as if they didn't understand what they do in such a strange land dominated by tortoises. In the middle of the fields they stand over the others, naively ignoring their majesty and beauty.
