We are about to finish our expedition aboard National Geographic Endeavour II. Today we visited Santa Cruz, the second largest island of the archipelago. We took buses to the north side of the island. On our way to see the tortoises, we observed the different vegetation zones found in the Galapagos. On the top part of this island, we saw one of the most unique forests in the world. The Scalesia forest once covered a big part of the island. Nowadays, we have just 1% left, and introduced plants threaten it. We stopped at the tortoise reserve where we observed big, medium, and small tortoises. Also, we enjoyed a delicious meal at the restaurant. In the afternoon, we finished our day on a gorgeous white sand beach with turquoise waters.

Photographers: Andres Cruz and Charles Wittmer