It is our third day of exploration, and we are having fun and enjoying our trip around the islands. Being here in these enchanted islands is a dream come true for our global explorers.
Early this morning we anchored in Academy Bay on the southern side of Santa Cruz Island. After breakfast we headed towards the Galapagos giant tortoises breeding center. Here we saw some of the different varieties of land tortoises, as well as Galapagos land iguanas. Our walk also allowed us to observe some of the famous Darwin finches hopping around the bushes in search of food. We also got a chance to see the juveniles land tortoises from many different islands in their training corrals, where they practice navigating rocky terrain that they will encounter once they are released back into the wild.
This morning we also saw the statue of the embalmed Lonesome George, which has recently returned to Galapagos after several years of exhibition at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. It now serves as a great message of conservation for the world, as George was the last male survivor from Pinta Island, and his death marks the end of this particular genetic line. Also we saw Super Diego, the tortoise from Española who has been very successful reproducing with his five females, helping immensely to rebuild the tortoise populations. As soon as their eggs are laid, they will be collected and placed inside an artificial incubator; as the young tortoises hatch, they will be kept in captivity until the age of 4 years old, when these juveniles will be released back to the island of their parents origin. We observed the unique saddleback shell which is characteristic of tortoises from dry, low and arid islands such as Española Island, as opposed to the dome-shaped shell which is seen in tortoises from areas with more fertile soil and low-lying vegetation.
As we left the breeding center, we headed to the town of Puerto Ayora; there we explored the town at our own pace and learned a bit more about the way the locals live in Galapagos.
Before lunch up in the highlands, we stopped by a local farm which is locally known as El Trapiche, where we learned about the process of roasting coffee and distilling sugar into alcohol. We sampled their coffee and some of the aguardiente produced here.
After lunch we headed to another local farm to look for wild Galapagos giant tortoises. We found several tortoises during our hike, some were feeding, others resting and some were enjoying a volcanic mud bath. This is the way tortoises avoid insect bites and cool down a bit after a sunny warm day.
After this exciting day we returned to the National Geographic Endeavour II and had a great evening with some local dancers and musicians from Santa Cruz that entertained us on board.
