This morning we awoke and found ourselves back in civilization! We were anchored in a pretty turquoise harbor called Academy Bay among dozens of yachts, boats and ships of all designs and sizes. Along the shore and well inland we could see the homes and buildings of the largest of the three towns on Santa Cruz Island: Puerto Ayora. “P.A.” as it is affectionately called by the English speaking locals, has almost 20,000 inhabitants. This is a friendly town, welcoming to tourists and visitors who come from all over the world. P.A. is the home of the headquarters of both the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park Service and it is from here that the restoration and conservation programs designed to protect these marvelous islands are orchestrated.
After breakfast we boarded the Zodiacs and disembarked at the National Park dock among sunning marine iguanas. We visited the tortoise breeding center, where we admired and photographed the hatchings that are cared for and protected from rats and cats in wire pens until they are old enough and tough enough to be released back into the wild on the islands of their origin. The tortoise breeding program has been immensely successful. The giant tortoises of the island of Española were brought back from the brink of extinction. The last 15 adult tortoises of this unique species have been breeding in captivity since the 1960’s and have produced over 2000 descendants which are now once again producing offspring in the wild on Española!
We met Super Diego – a male Española tortoise that was returned to the islands from the San Diego Zoo and who has been the best procreator of the three males; hence his name. Diego was spotted today “at work” – busy living up to his name and creating baby tortoises. The morning had become very hot and humid. We walked towards town, stopping at a small hotel café for a cool glass of water or juice and then many of us walked down to the little fish market. The fresh catch was being cleaned and we enjoyed watching the antics of a couple of sea lions and a group of juvenile pelicans who begged for and attempted to steal bits of fish. One lucky pelican made off with a whole filet to the irritation of the fisherman.
We boarded buses and drove into the lush green highlands of Santa Cruz. We visited a “trapiche;” a family run sugar cane press and coffee farm. We learned how sugar cane juice, liquor and cane sugar are produced and how the coffee beans are peeled and roasted. We sample the cane products, had a cup of fresh coffee, and then returned to the buses to continue driving further up the island to another farm where we had a delicious buffet lunch.
Following lunch we continued our exploration in the highlands; we climbed down into a double lava tunnel and then searched for giant tortoises in the wild. The total count of tortoises for the afternoon outing was 16 - and that included a couple of huge old males of impressive size! Later, back again in the town of Puerto Ayora, some of us went shopping and others returned to the National Geographic Islander. We finished this full and interesting day with exuberant music and dancing by a local folkloric group, EcoArte. I was surprised that our guests still had so much energy after all we’d done today! We’ll sleep well tonight, as the ship moves on to tomorrow’s visitor site at South Plaza Island.
