Clear skies and sunshine gave us a warm welcome to Santa Cruz. All of our guests were very excited to see the unique wildlife of this Island and also looked forward to seeing the first town of the expedition. It is a little hard to believe that people live in the Galapagos, so today we showed our guests the two different sides of this enchanted archipelago.
The Charles Darwin Station, home of several hundred giant tortoises, was our first destination of the morning. At the rearing center we could see little hatchlings which eventually were going to be repatriated to their Islands of origin. Our guests learned a lot about the Island’s conservation and all of the procedures done locally to restore the population of giant tortoises in the Galápagos. Along with the hatchlings, full sized adult tortoises and land iguanas were seen at the center.
Later in the morning our guests had some time on their own to explore the exotic town of Puerto Ayora and its wonders. For some this became a great shopping opportunity.
Our morning continued onboard local buses in order to discover the highlands of Santa Cruz, a very distinctive place, a very different from all of the places we have seen so far in the Galápagos. Perhaps what caught everybody’s attention was the lush vegetation and tall trees, similar to a cloud forest. Before going to the restaurant for lunch, we stopped at “El Trapiche”, a sugar cane mill owned by local people. They happily gave us a tour and demonstrated the products prepared out of sugar cane juice, such as panela and moon shine.
After a wonderful luncheon with a nice breeze and a sea view, all guests went to visit the highlands of Santa Cruz to look for the endemic tortoises. It was a successful outing, many tortoises were seen and many were humongous.
Our day was exceptional, with a mix of flora, fauna and culture of the Galapagueños (Citizens from the Galápagos).
