By Tuesday morning, National Geographic Endeavour is anchored at the harbor in Puerto Ayora, the town located on the island of Santa Cruz, also home to the Charles Darwin Research Center. It will be a great location to share with our explorers who are ready to disembark by 7:45 a.m. to learn about the conservation organizations working in the archipelago.
Our landing is at the Galapagos National Park Service’s dock, the governmental organization responsible for the administration and management of the park. From here we walk to the research center where the tortoise enclosures are, and where we can explain to our adventurers we have done to protect the islands in the last fifty years or so and how we provide conservation education locally and around the world.
The stops allow us to learn about the tortoises from the island of Espanola who were once close to extinction. We went to the enclosure that was once home to Lonesome George, who we thought was the last member of a lineage that inhabited the island of Pinta. We also made a stop at the rearing center to see the baby tortoises and how we successfully reproduced these endemic creatures to repopulate those threatened populations in the islands. From the Darwin Station the expedition moved to the highlands of Santa Cruz after a short stop to see Puerto Ayora. By bus we took the road that crosses the island and made a short stop in the farming area to visit El Trapiche, an example of what farmers in Galapagos do to make a living in the archipelago. We enjoyed lunch at the restaurant and prepared for the great finale of the day: exploring an area where tortoises are found in the wild. What a great day!
