We left our peaceful anchorage at Floreana in the wee hours of the morning and we navigated north to Santa Cruz Island. By sunrise we were anchored in Academy Bay along with a large number of yachts and ships of all designs and sizes. This morning we disembarked on the main dock of the town of Puerto Ayora and visited the Charles Darwin Research Station, the largest town in Galapagos and the lush Santa Cruz highlands.
We boarded three buses, drove to the far side of town and then walked the last quarter of a mile to the headquarters of the Charles Darwin Station and the Galapagos National Park. Our naturalist team: Vanessa, Chrisitan and Jeffo took us along the cobble paved road to view the native gardens and the captive breeding enclosures for giant tortoises. Scientists are breeding and repatriating endangered races of tortoises and increasing their wild population sizes. The guides explained that the large dome tortoises in the first of the lava enclosure were recently brought from the slopes of Wolf volcano and are new additions to the captive breeding program. “Super Diego”, an old saddle-backed male, was returned to Galapagos in the 70’s from the San Diego Zoo and has been important in the efforts to bring the Española tortoises back from the brink of extinction.
We walked down through town, stopping to shop in the many colorful boutiques, and to enjoy the fishermen’s market. A fat sea lion and several juvenile pelicans fought over fish scraps which made for some funny and interesting photos! At The Rock café we refilled our water bottles and sipped a glass of cool maracuya juice. The bikers headed off in the first bus to the highlands and the rest of us soon followed. We all gathered again at the family run El Trapiche farm where the naturalists demonstrated how the coffee and cane are processed and we sampled the products. We helped ourselves to delicious fresh, ripe bananas which we pulled from the stem.
By bus we continued higher into the highlands and drove for another 20 minutes. We reached Narwhal restaurant and enjoyed a delicious lunch of grilled chicken, vegetables and coconut cake. Here we found a charming juvenile barn owl perched on a lava wall posing while he slept for pictures! Tui DeRoy, a well-known nature photographer, joined us for lunch and told us about being raised in Galapagos. We returned to the buses and drove down the island slopes in search of wild giant tortoises. On the Chato farm we found dozens of these huge and ancient reptiles. They were lumbering through the green pastures feeding on grasses or soaking in a muddy pool of water. Tortoises are perhaps the most iconic creatures of Galapagos, and the islands were originally named by the early Spaniard sailors for the tortoises. They reminded the sailors of the Spanish leather saddles called “galapago.” After giving us plenty of time for photographing the tortoises, our guides led us through a lava tunnel. Volcanic islands are crisscrossed with these interesting subterranean tunnel structures.
We returned in the late afternoon by bus to the town of Puerto Ayora and many of our guests headed to the ship for a rest before cocktail hour in the lounge. A group of the “do-it-all folks” stayed on shore for a last chance at shopping or another drink at The Rock.
Following our recap and buffet dinner we were thoroughly entertained with a music and dance show performed by the local folkloric group, EcoArte. I don’t know where their energy came from after our long, interesting, hot day on shore, but many of our guests joined in and surprised us with their dancing!
We’ve had yet another fabulous day in the Islas Encantadas of Galapagos!
