Today in Santa Cruz, we began the morning with a visit to the Fausto LLerena Breeding Centre. This is a restoration program, run since the early 1960s, for the conservation of the endangered species of Galapagos, particularly the Galapagos giant tortoises. The centre was established by the mutual cooperation of the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park Service.
After this very educational visit, we split up into groups to visiting a local school and the Trapiche, which is an organic farm that produces Galapagos organic coffee, and raw sugar and artisanal moonshine obtained from sugar cane.
During the visit to the school, known as Tomas de Berlanga, the director of the academic institution explained us on their sustainable and integrated educational system. He and the students guided our group through the school and showed us their upcoming plans for developing local leadership-capacity building initiatives.
The last activity of our day consisted of a visit to El Manzanillo. This is a private property on the highlands of the rural area of Santa Cruz. The visit included the opportunity of meeting Galapagos giant tortoises in wilderness; exploring the forest and taking photos of these endemic species in their natural habitat. It was incredible to see these serene giants up close in this beautiful environment.
After a long and exciting day, we headed back to the National Geographic Endeavour II for a delicious dinner. Now it is time to get some sleep, as our adventure continues tomorrow.
