Santa Cruz Island
Puerto Ayora, is waiting for us today, Welcome back to civilization! With 25,000 people Santa Cruz is the second biggest island of the Archipelago, the main activity in this busy little town is tourism.
Most of our guests have been waiting for this particular day! They already know we will be spending a lot of time with the giant tortoises of the Galápagos. Our morning at the Charles Darwin Research Station gave us the chance to explain how the magnificent creatures have been saved from going extinct. The stars of the show are the tortoises George and of course Diego and his American experience at the San Diego Zoo.
Discovering Puerto Ayora, shopping and just walking around taking pictures was how we spent the rest of the morning time. At noon we took buses to the highlands, where after lunch we would again be spending the afternoon with the tortoises in their natural habitat. There were about 24 giant tortoises, and we observed them walking around, drinking water. The big dome shaped tortoises that live on this island look like rocks from a distance, but as we got closer we realized that they were roaming along and staring at us.
Back in town, we had some time off… some of us go for ice cream, some of us go for a beer, some of us go for coffee… but at the end we were very happy to be back at the National Geographic Polaris, it really feels like our home on the islands.
Puerto Ayora, is waiting for us today, Welcome back to civilization! With 25,000 people Santa Cruz is the second biggest island of the Archipelago, the main activity in this busy little town is tourism.
Most of our guests have been waiting for this particular day! They already know we will be spending a lot of time with the giant tortoises of the Galápagos. Our morning at the Charles Darwin Research Station gave us the chance to explain how the magnificent creatures have been saved from going extinct. The stars of the show are the tortoises George and of course Diego and his American experience at the San Diego Zoo.
Discovering Puerto Ayora, shopping and just walking around taking pictures was how we spent the rest of the morning time. At noon we took buses to the highlands, where after lunch we would again be spending the afternoon with the tortoises in their natural habitat. There were about 24 giant tortoises, and we observed them walking around, drinking water. The big dome shaped tortoises that live on this island look like rocks from a distance, but as we got closer we realized that they were roaming along and staring at us.
Back in town, we had some time off… some of us go for ice cream, some of us go for a beer, some of us go for coffee… but at the end we were very happy to be back at the National Geographic Polaris, it really feels like our home on the islands.
