Late last night National Geographic Endeavour sailed into Academy Bay. This large shallow bay on the southern side of Santa Cruz Island is a relatively exposed anchorage, which makes our Zodiac embarkations somewhat adventurous. But it would all be worth it, since this is the island where we would get to see the most famous inhabitants of this remote archipelago.
We left our ship for the day right after breakfast and landed at the main pier of Isidro Ayora Port. This town, locally known simply as Puerto Ayora, is the home to the largest human population in the Galapagos Islands. The vast majority of some twenty thousand inhabitants of this island live in the town, while a small fraction of the population lives across two villages and a few hamlets, on the southern slopes of the highlands of Santa Cruz Island.
Puerto Ayora has been the home of the Charles Darwin Research Center since the 1960s, and today we set off to visit its flagship conservation project, the Galapagos Giant Tortoise Rearing Program. Here we had the opportunity to see the Española Island giant tortoise—a small species with a saddle-shaped shell that was saved from the brink of extinction thanks to this joint program between the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park Directorate. We also had the opportunity to see some recently arrived Wolf Volcano/Pinta Island hybrid giant tortoises, which are going to take part in a new breeding program. These new arrivals were not being used to living in a relatively small pen, and we witnessed how a very energetic young male made his way up the steep incline of a one-meter-tall rock fence until he had climbed all the way to the top. Had we not called for a park ranger’s attention, I’m sure that the fearless reptile would have made a daring escape, given the amount hours such a move had required!
Later that morning, we boarded our buses and made our way to the highlands. Before lunch we stopped by a small organic farm where the traditional growing and processing of coffee and sugarcane where on display. This farm has been in operation since the first people came to this island, before electricity and modern equipment were available, and we were able to watch how they still use a donkey to operate the press.
After a delicious lunch at the Aquellarre Restaurant, we made our way to a local farm that neighbors the National Park. The family who owns this farm has set up in such a way that it is very easy to move around and spot the massive Santa Cruz Island giant tortoises that have roamed these areas for millennia. After having had some excellent photo opportunities of these dome-shaped shells, we made our way back to Puerto Ayora where our Zodiacs took us back to our floating home. It was another incredible day, here in this remote archipelago.
