Santa Cruz
Academy Bay was full of sailing ships and motor vessels of all kinds when we arrived with the first light of dawn and Captain John Zurita dropped our anchor. Anchored beside us was a sleek, luxury yacht; a gorgeous privately owned boat belonging to someone who could afford her expensive upkeep. We admired the yacht but are happy with our home for this week: National Geographic Islander.
Following a scrumptious breakfast of eggs benedict (I don’t think they could have had it any better over on the luxury yacht!) we boarded our fleet of Zodiacs and headed to shore and the town of Puerto Ayora. This morning we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station with our Naturalists, and learned about the very successful tortoise captive breeding program. From only 15 adult tortoises that were located on the southeastern island of Española and were brought to the CDRS in the mid 60’s there are now over 1600 tortoises that have been repatriated back to Española and are breeding in the wild.
We visited the native nursery where seedlings of indigenous and endemic plants are grown and given to the locals to be grown in their gardens instead of the introduced species that have been traditional chosen. After our visit to the Research Station we walked back through town to the municipal park, shopping and sightseeing along the way. Pelicans begging for scraps at the fish market were the funniest show in town; those who returned to the market later in the afternoon found that a sea lion had joined them to beg!
The blue and white buses took us into the highlands and those of us who wanted to climbed into a lava tube and crossed through it about a quarter of a mile. By then we were ready for the abundant buffet lunch and while we ate rain pounded noisily on the tin roof. This time the rain fell at an appropriate time! As the rain slowed and soon stopped we divided into “do-it-all” groups, who searched for wild tortoises and visited the pit craters, pit craters only and those who wished to return to the town and the ship.
This evening our Video Chronicler Beau Sylte showed us a preview of the video he has been working on this week and we were delighted with both his filming and what we have seen! After dinner, a local group of musicians and dancers, “Eco-Arte” entertained us. We joined in the dancing and soon after hurried off to bed to rest up for our final day in these magical islands.
