Today we awoke to find we were anchored in a pretty harbor among dozens of yachts and ships of all designs and sizes. Galápagos tour boats, fishing boats and private yachts from around the world all shared the sparkling blue waters of Academy Bay. We had a hearty breakfast and then boarded the Zodiacs for the ride to shore. The National Geographic Islander naturalists led us through the tortoise breeding center where we saw both the small juvenile tortoises and the large breeding adults. We heard the story of “Super Diego” – a male tortoise who was taken from the island of Española to the San Diego Zoo and then returned in the 1970’s so he could be a part of the breeding population and efforts to bring the Española tortoise population back from the brink of extinction. From a total low population of just 15 adult Española individuals there are now almost 2,000 tortoises in the wild on that island again.
After our visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station we walked into town, shopping and photographing as we went. Many of us stopped in at the small fish market where we were entertained by the sight of pelicans, endemic lava gulls and sea lions begging for scraps of fish. After a cool glass of juice we climbed onto buses and headed into the lush green highlands of Santa Cruz Island. We stopped at a family run coffee and sugar cane farm and enjoyed both seeing how coffee and cane products are made and having the chance to taste several of these products. We had a cup of excellent organic coffee, drank sugar cane juice with a splash of bitter orange or with some potent cane liquor, pulled ripe bananas from the stalk, and dipped fresh cheese in cane sugar.
Back on the buses again, we drove further up into the highlands and had a delicious buffet lunch in a simple restaurant with a fabulous view. A huge, empty tortoise shell made for great photos for those who decided to try it on and backed into the shell. We returned to the buses and drove lower down the slopes of the island to search for giant tortoises in the wild. Jackson kept our official maximum count of 12 tortoises!
When we drove back into town later in the afternoon our guests chose to go back out to the National Geographic Islander or to remain in town for some additional shopping. By 1700 we were all back on the ship enjoying a well-deserved drink in the bar and watching a lovely pink and orange sunset. After dinner, to top off an enjoyable day, a local group of musicians and dancers – EcoArte – entertained us in the lounge.
