Santa Cruz Island
After a nice quiet navigation, we arrived to Santa Cruz Island very early in the morning; we are now in the central realm of the archipelago. We dropped anchor inside a large bay which is surrounded by steep cliffs. This bay was named after the arrival of the Academy of Sciences to Galápagos; this expedition went for 12 months during 1905 and 1906.
Today we found the largest town in the archipelago and our opportunity to look for Galápagos giant tortoises in the wild. This morning we headed to the headquarters of the Charles Darwin Center where we saw tortoises in different stages from little babies all the way to large adults. There we also met famous Lonesome George and his two female companions.
We left the Darwin Center and walked into town to see some of the most colorful corners of this small village, especially the fishermen’s dock. Every afternoon, sea lions, pelicans, blue-footed boobies, and herons take over the dock to eat some of the scraps and leftovers.
After spending our morning in the lowlands, we went to the highlands. Here we had lunch. Before that, some of our guests went biking and walking. After lunch we went looking for Galápagos giant tortoises in the wild, walked in to the giant daisies forest and admired the very impressive “Gemelos” or pit craters.
This was a great day, we all enjoyed it very much.
