We were anchored peacefully all evening off Floreana and just before midnight Captain Jaramillo had his crew haul up our anchor and we set sail north towards Santa Cruz Island. We dropped anchor again at dawn in Academy Bay and when we awoke discovered we were surrounded by yachts and ships of all designs and sizes. After several days in the outer islands it was a bit strange to be back in “civilization!”
We had a hearty breakfast and then boarded the Zodiacs for a short ride into shore where we landed at the main town dock. Three buses took us to the far side of town and into the headquarters of both the Charles Darwin Station and the Galapagos National Park. Naturalists Gilda, Celso and Paul led us a half mile along a cobble paved road to the captive breeding enclosures for giant tortoises. As I had explained in our evening briefing, a recent exciting discovery of tortoises with genetic material from the extinct (we thought) populations from the islands of Pinta and Floreana has given us new hope for saving these two races of tortoises. The large dome tortoises that we saw this morning are new additions to the captive breeding program and are some of the ones recently brought from the slopes of Wolf volcano. We saw “Super Diego,” too, an old saddle-backed male. He is the excellent breeder from the island of Española and was returned to Galapagos in the 70’s from the San Diego Zoo!
We followed the coastal road, shopping as we went, through the bustling town of Puerto Ayora. The fisherman had been successful last night and they were cleaning and selling their catch at the fish market. Juvenile pelicans vied and fought over the fish heads and guts and a very fat sea lion begged for scraps, too. At Hernan café we rested and enjoyed a glass of cool mango juice before boarding the buses for a 20 minute drive into the highlands of Santa Cruz. Our first stop was at El Trapiche, a small, family run coffee and sugar cane plantation. Here we enjoyed learning how the coffee and cane are processed and we particularly enjoyed sampling the results! The fresh ripe bananas we pulled from the stem were delicious!
We climbed onto the buses again and drove west for another 20 minute, and reached Narwhal restaurant where we had a delicious lunch of grilled chicken, vegetables and apple cake. Then we headed further south and west down the island slopes in search of giant tortoises. On the Chato farm (that means high plateau) we found several of these huge ancient beasts lumbering in green pastures feeding on the grasses, moving along slowly. These are of course the iconic creatures of Galapagos; the islands were named by the early Spaniards for the tortoises that reminded them of their leather saddles called “galapagos.” We enjoyed photographing the tortoises and finding our own curious reptile for a tete a tete encounter! Our guides took us through a lava tunnel and explained that the islands are crisscrossed with these volcanic structures.
By late afternoon our camera cards were nearly full and we returned to the town of Puerto Ayora by bus. Our guests could choose between heading back to the ship for a rest before our evening recap and cocktail hour in the lounge, or staying on shore for a last chance at shopping. We had a delicious buffet dinner and then came up to the lounge for a music and dance show performed by the local folkloric group, EcoArte. We joined in with their dancers and surprised ourselves by finding that even after a long and full day we still had the energy to dance! What an interesting day we’ve had in the Islas Encantadas of Galapagos!
