Santa Cruz Island
Today we awoke anchored off of Academy Bay, on the southern coast of Santa Cruz Island. Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the archipelago and the most inhabited. It is home to the second largest Galápagos giant tortoise population. It is also where the headquarters of the Galápagos National Park Service (GNPS) and the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) are located. This is where scientists gather information for the conservation of the island's unique biota.
We visited one of the most significant and successful programs in the ecological restoration of the islands: the giant tortoise breeding program. We had the chance to see Lonesome George, the only individual of Pinta Island, thus the last of his kind, a vivid reminder that protecting these unique creatures from a similar fate is not an option for us, but rather an obligation. We also had the chance to see the Española tortoises well as other large tortoises involved with increasing the tortoise populations threaten by the presence of introduce species such as rats, cats and goats, now in the process of being completely eradicated.
After the Darwin Station we walked through the picturesque town of Puerto Ayora, with some 18,000 inhabitants, being the economic hub of the archipelago. Art galleries, shops, internet cafes, restaurants and the fish market, where a surprise for many of our guests and of course, a dream for the shoppers who were able to find many good bargains in town.
Lunch was waiting for us up at a beautiful restaurant located at a private farm in the highlands. Lush vegetation and an interesting farming landscape surrounded us. We stopped at the town of Bellavista where we had the chance to drink fresh sugar cane juice and watch the process to extract the juice, as well as learn a little bit more about the organic coffee, cultivated in the area. Before arriving at the restaurant, some guests had the chance to walk, jog or mountain bike and then refresh in a pool surrounded by beautiful gardens.
Then, we went into the fields of a farm, located along the giant tortoise migratory route to find these ancient reptiles that have probably travelled along the same routes for ages. It was not easy to find them as the vegetation around was pretty high and they were quite, but after a while, we were happy to find three big males enjoying the abundant grass with an evident lack of interest or concern about what was going on in the rest of the world.
A lava tunnel, pit craters, the endemic Scalesia forest and different kinds of Darwin’s finches were also interesting to see, but among all, giant tortoises in the wild were the highlight of the day!
