Santa Cruz has seen a lot of transformation. I have witnessed it myself: from a lovely little town of 6,000 inhabitants in 1992 (the year I came to work in the Galapagos), it has become a city with more than 20,000 people, and numerous cars, shops, restaurants and hotels. But its charm remains. Walking along the main road is as enjoyable as twenty years ago. The ocean on one side of the street, and human life on the other: people biking to work, students walking to school, workers opening their stores. Everyone smiling, easygoing, and self-respecting, because of what we call “Galapagoenian pride” due to all that they have achieved, the ability to live in communion with nature, in a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site. This was one of the first towns in Ecuador with a recycling program, and in the very heart of Puerto Ayora, one finds the headquarters of the Charles Darwin Research Station and National Park Service, iconic institutions of conservation.
We experienced all of this today, life on an inhabited island, successful management efforts with the breeding program of giant tortoises, and the work done in a farm in the highlands where they produce their own sugar, moonshine, coffee, cheese, plantain and milk. And of course, we tried it all.
After lunch we encountered tortoises in the wild, dozens, happily walking through tall vegetation.
Today we had the perfect combination of civilization and nature; because that’s the way it always is in Santa Cruz Island.
