Santa Cruz Island
Our expedition continues in the enchanted islands – today we visited Santa Cruz in the central part of the archipelago.
Shortly after our disembarkation at Puerto Ayora, the main town of the island, our guests had some free time to spend in town. Later in the morning we took buses to explore the highlands; our destination was Cerro Mesa, a beautiful reserve where one can find a lot of endemic vegetation and some little ponds of fresh water, full of life. Two giant tortoises endemic to the area were found here. Some of us visited a pit crater and then went mountain biking. At the end of our morning’s visits we all gathered at a local restaurant for lunch; after doing so many activities we had some time to relax in the restaurant’s swimming pool.
On our way back to Puerto Ayora, we stopped first to see a giant lava tunnel and afterwards continued to the Charles Darwin Research Station. At the Darwin Station we saw the breeding program of giant tortoises step-by-step, from the little babies to the ones that were almost ready to be repatriated to their islands of origin.
It was a great day with a lot of new things that enriched our experience in the Galápagos; finally we finished our day with the performance of a local band of musicians from town.
