We left our calm anchorage at Post Office Bay, Floreana at 0130 and in the wee hours of the morning navigated north towards the southeastern coast of Santa Cruz Island. Captain Garces had the boson drop our anchor when we reached Academy Bay at dawn. We awoke to find a hard drizzle of “garua” falling, the bay full of yachts, and houses along the shore! After half a week of strictly wildlife and cactus-scapes, we found ourselves back in civilization today.
We boarded the Zodiacs and headed for the main town dock. Buses were waiting to take us on a short drive to the Charles Darwin Station and headquarters of the Galapagos National Park. Naturalists Antonio, Fabian, and Giancarlo guided us through the native gardens of the CDRS and pointed out some of the Darwin finches. We learned that the large saddleback tortoises in a rocky coral had recently been brought in from the wild and are new additions to the captive breeding program. We saw the current star, a reproductive male tortoise from Española Island, who is affectionately called “Super Diego.” The captive tortoise breeding program has been extremely successful and has brought several populations of highly endangered tortoises back from the brink of extinction!
We left the Darwin Station and walked through the town of Puerto Ayora, shopping and photographing as we went. At the fish market sea lions and pelicans were begging for fish scraps and made for some delightful photos! We took a break at The Rock café, were served a cool glass of pineapple juice and then we boarded our buses for a 20 minute drive into the lush, wet, green highlands of Santa Cruz Island. One bus with naturalist Antonio went to visit a charming, small private school, Tomas de Berlanga, where they donated books brought from the US and were shown around the school by the older school kids. The rest of our guests visited a family run plantation - El Trapiche - where sugar cane and coffee are grown and processed. Here we learned about the traditional methods still used to roast and prepare the coffee. We also enjoyed sampling coffee, sugar cane juice, farmer’s cheese, raw cane syrup, brown sugar and the potent cane liquor! A tiny barn owl slept soundly on the rafters over our heads, in spite of all the pictures taken of him.
We had a delicious lunch of grilled chicken and vegetables at Narwhal Restaurant in the highlands. After the meal we climbed again into the buses and drove west down the slopes of Santa Cruz where we found many giant tortoises. These huge, ancient reptiles wandered slowly and free and were definitely enjoying the wet weather and the resulting abundance of food. We photographed the tortoises, taking dozens and dozens of pictures and we also explored a lava tunnel. Back in town some of us returned to the ship to rest and others stayed on shore for the last chance to shop. After our evening briefing and dinner we were entertained by the local group EcoArte with music and dance. We have had yet another very busy day full of unique experiences in the magical Islas Encantadas of Galapagos!
