Santa Cruz Island
It was a very interesting day for us with many activities to enjoy. Our day began with one of the most expected visits as it is the visit to the Charles Darwin Center, where we encounter several subspecies of Galápagos giant tortoises and land iguanas.
This Center is known world wide because of the joint efforts with the Galápagos National Park Service to protect, restore, and study the native and endemic populations of the many different species of plants and animals of this archipelago.
There we also had a great time observing the very impressive Galápagos giant prickly pear cactus that can reach 28 to 30 feet tall with beautiful golden brown bark and big branches.
Once we finished our visit here we went to the town of Puerto Ayora and had a great time walking through this little town and supporting the local economy while shopping some nice handcrafts, t-shirts, etc.
Around noon we took our buses to the Highlands to have a well deserved delicious lunch at Altair on the way we found ourselves surrounded by big trees covered with mosses, lichens, ferns, and other epiphytes and the abundance of grass, coffee, bananas, papayas, avocados was very impressive.
Some walked long, medium, and short distance to the restaurant and gave them the chance to exercise and explore this wonderful area. Those who wanted a little more adventure went by mountain bikes to the restaurant and had a wonderful time while doing so.
After lunch we had different options to visit the highlands, some went to the Gemelos (pit craters) were the scalesia forest surprised us with its greenery and it is the home for some of our endemic birds such as finches, doves, and mockingbirds. The next stop was at Butterfly Ranch were tortoises are found there as part of their migratory route.
We found about 27 tortoises most of them were males, and a vermillion flycatcher was spotted while catching insects, in some moment even took a free ride on top of one big male that was trying to have another bite of grass. One of the best moments of our visit was a big surprise, there in the open was a Barn owl that we observed for some time and looked so peaceful and relaxed that stayed on top of the roof of a house and spent some time looking at us. After this time at the highlands we returned to the ship and after a wonderful dinner we had a group of local musicians that amused us with their music.
This certainly was a wonderful day we enjoyed every minute of it.
It was a very interesting day for us with many activities to enjoy. Our day began with one of the most expected visits as it is the visit to the Charles Darwin Center, where we encounter several subspecies of Galápagos giant tortoises and land iguanas.
This Center is known world wide because of the joint efforts with the Galápagos National Park Service to protect, restore, and study the native and endemic populations of the many different species of plants and animals of this archipelago.
There we also had a great time observing the very impressive Galápagos giant prickly pear cactus that can reach 28 to 30 feet tall with beautiful golden brown bark and big branches.
Once we finished our visit here we went to the town of Puerto Ayora and had a great time walking through this little town and supporting the local economy while shopping some nice handcrafts, t-shirts, etc.
Around noon we took our buses to the Highlands to have a well deserved delicious lunch at Altair on the way we found ourselves surrounded by big trees covered with mosses, lichens, ferns, and other epiphytes and the abundance of grass, coffee, bananas, papayas, avocados was very impressive.
Some walked long, medium, and short distance to the restaurant and gave them the chance to exercise and explore this wonderful area. Those who wanted a little more adventure went by mountain bikes to the restaurant and had a wonderful time while doing so.
After lunch we had different options to visit the highlands, some went to the Gemelos (pit craters) were the scalesia forest surprised us with its greenery and it is the home for some of our endemic birds such as finches, doves, and mockingbirds. The next stop was at Butterfly Ranch were tortoises are found there as part of their migratory route.
We found about 27 tortoises most of them were males, and a vermillion flycatcher was spotted while catching insects, in some moment even took a free ride on top of one big male that was trying to have another bite of grass. One of the best moments of our visit was a big surprise, there in the open was a Barn owl that we observed for some time and looked so peaceful and relaxed that stayed on top of the roof of a house and spent some time looking at us. After this time at the highlands we returned to the ship and after a wonderful dinner we had a group of local musicians that amused us with their music.
This certainly was a wonderful day we enjoyed every minute of it.
