Santa Cruz Island

It’s Wednesday morning, the sun is shining and we are waking up in the Harbor of Puerto Ayora. Welcome back to civilization! Santa Cruz is the second biggest island of the Archipelago and one of the five inhabited islands. 17,000 people make their living on this island; most of the activities are related to tourism, like fisheries, agriculture and cattle farming.

We are here to see the icon of the Galápagos Islands, the giant tortoise. The National Park runs a breeding program on this island and we learn a lot of the different types and races of tortoises and the rearing of the hatchlings. The Park Rangers arrive with food as we visit lonesome George and there is all kind of interaction going on, like females pushing and biting each other to get more food or space. These creatures of a different world get all the attention from our guests and lots of pictures are being taken, while the tortoises carry on with their prehistoric life.

The time to visit Puerto Ayora, shop and observe the activities that take place in this small town fly by and soon it’s time to take one of the buses to go to the Highlands. Some guests decide to ride bikes and some others walk up part of the distance longing for some exercise. Soon everybody arrives to the restaurant where Lunch is served. Altair, a wonderful, quiet place surrounded by colorful plants and fruit trees, is just what we need. After a delicious meal we leave because the highlight of the day is to see the tortoises in the wild and after riding the bus for 20 minutes into the farming area of Santa Cruz we end up in Tortoise territory.

A lava tunnel is explored, some Darwin finches observed and after just a short walk we are surrounded by the big dome-shaped Tortoises that live on this island; they look like rocks in the middle of nowhere but as we get closer we realize that there are lots, roaming along, munching grass and staring at us. Amazing these animals are still found on six islands of this archipelago and thanks to the effort of the National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station eleven races survive.

This was a very rewarding day and everybody is happy as we return to the ship. I overheard: “it’s good to be home again.” What else can we expect after embarking again on our National Geographic Polaris?