This morning we arrived at Santa Cruz Island. As soon as we disembarked, we saw a very different island from the past two days, with a busy bay full of local boats and sailing yachts. Our goal today was to reach the Rearing Center of Tortoises, and we started with a short walk along the path to the Charles Darwin Research Station. Among other things, we saw marine iguanas got along with passing-by locals, careless of what was around them, just laying down to warm up for the next feeding time. As we reach the facilities we saw the corrals of adults and the breeding individuals. We also learn about land iguanas and the efforts to bring them back to colonies like Baltra. We had sometime in town to get some souvenirs, and visit a local market: the fisherman’s market was a lot fun with sea lions, pelicans, frigates, all wanting to get a share of the leftovers. On our way up to highlands we experienced the change in vegetation from dry to ever green fields, cattle farms and coffee plantations. We visited one of the farms, where we treated ourselves to some locally distilled alcohol and we got very high in spirits. Our BBQ lunch was wonderful and tasty!
Afterwards, we went higher in the island to visit a farm where tortoises roam in freedom: and there they were, the icon of the Galapagos Islands, the Galapagos giant tortoises, so prehistoric that it was easy to see how they would share their time with dinosaurs.
