During the early morning hours we navigated north from Floreana Island, and just before dawn we dropped our anchor in the harbor of Academy Bay, off the town of Puerto Ayora. This is a bustling town where tourism and fishing are the chief activities, and it is the home of both the National Park and Darwin Research Station headquarters. Over 20,000 inhabitants reside in the port, and it is a pleasant, clean, and attractive seaside town.
Following breakfast we boarded the Zodiacs and rode in to disembark at the eastern end of Puerto Ayora for a visit to the tortoise rearing center, which is an interesting and extremely successful joint project of the National Park and Darwin Station. Here giant tortoise eggs are incubated and protected in captivity and when the hatchlings are strong and large enough they are returned to the wild on the islands of their origins. We saw the adult tortoises from Española Island—a population that was on the brink of extinction in the mid 1960s when there only 12 females and two males had been found in the wild. These individuals were brought to Santa Cruz and the captive breeding project began. An additional male was located in the San Diego Zoo and he—later named Super Diego—was returned to Galápagos in 1977. Now over 2000 tortoises once again roam wild on the island of Española thanks to the success of the captive breeding program!
We walked through town in the late morning, shopping in colorful boutiques and taking pictures of the action at the fish market. We gathered at The Rock café for a glass of juice before heading into the highlands. Half of our group opted for a chance for some additional exercise and went with naturalist Juan Carlos in the first bus to the town of Bella Vista where bicycles awaited them. By the time they had adjusted their bikes and had pedaled out of town, the drizzle had turned to rain—yes, this is the transitional season between the garua season and the rainy season and it seems to have begun to rain for real today! Luckily, three miles later when they puffed into El Trapiche cane and coffee plantation, the bikers were still smiling!
The rest of us, on Carlos’ bus, joined the bikers for the visit to El Trapiche. We all enjoyed seeing the family run and traditional preparation of coffee and sugar cane and especially enjoyed sampled the tasty end-products. We found that the fresh sugar cane juice was delicious with or without a squirt of bitter orange or a splash of cane liquor!
Our buses took us further into the highlands to a rustic restaurant called Narwhal where we had lunch. Afterwards we drove down the slope of the island to find giant tortoises in the wild. There were many—at least a couple dozen—and some were really large old males. One pair was mating and some of us heard the funny deep moan made by the copulating giant tortoise male. Everyone snapped countless photos and we admired and watched the ancient lumbering reptiles as they fed in the lush vegetation.
We explored an impressive double decker lava tunnel and then headed down to town. Many of us returned to the ship but a few stayed on shore to do additional shopping or to watch as the townies awoke from their afternoon siesta and sprang into action. We had some action of our own later, back on the Islander, when the local folklore group EcoArte played music and danced for—and with us in the lounge after dinner. I was amazed at the energy our guests still had for dancing even though they had to forgo their siesta this afternoon! It has been yet another magical day in las islas encantadas!
