Santa Cruz Island
We anchored in Academy Bay at Santa Cruz Island, which is the second largest island in the Galápagos and sustains about 20,000 people. Here we had a full day visiting the giant tortoises. This is the home of the Charles Darwin Research Station and the administrative offices of the National Park.
This morning we had close-up views of two famous tortoises: Lonesome George, the last survivor of Pinta Island; and mighty Diego, the prolific, proud father of 1600 baby tortoises. Many of his little offspring brought a smile to our faces as we saw the progress that humankind makes for restoring these reptiles back to their original numbers.
Today we were lucky to have a cloud cover in the morning, which served as a natural shade for a while, before turning sunny, and finally, rainy.
Soon after our free time in town – shopping and also drinking soft drinks or a cold local beer – we rode a bus to the highlands for an array of options like bike riding, and visiting Trapiche, a farm in the highlands where we saw the processing of different products out of sugar cane, like melaza (brown sugar) and agua-ardiente (distilled liquor).
Our lunch at 900 feet was simply delightful, surrounded by finches and lush green vegetation; we shared our morning experiences while getting ready for our next adventure. Like a safari adventure, we searched for giant tortoises in their natural state. These shiny boulders move slowly among the grass, and sure enough, there they were, just as the first colonizers saw. We felt privileged to see them and to understand how lucky we are to observe that these reptiles have a great chance of survival.
We continued to a higher elevation, around 2,000 feet, to visit the pit craters. These two geological features were the admiration of all. No pictures can convey the immensity of such a structure, made by Mother Nature as a reminder of her mighty presence.
Back to the town we drove, and our Zodiacs took us to the ship; we were all eager to share our pictures of such a wonderful day. We are now heading to the northern part of Santa Cruz Island where there are many more adventures waiting for us.
