Santa Cruz Island
We rode the gentle swells into Academy Bay early this morning. Rounding the southern edge of Santa Cruz Island it was startling to see houses, buildings, boats and a few communications towers clustered along the shores of this small indented bay, quite a contrast to the wild and rugged coastlines of the past few days. Puerto Ayora has around 11,000 inhabitants, and is the hub of business, tourism and science here in the archipelago. We spent the morning focused on tortoises: big ones, small ones, saddle-backed and domed, unknown and famous, we saw them all. The Charles Darwin Research Station lies on the easternmost edge of town, within property actually part of the Galápagos National Park. A few hundred meters along a paved road leads one out a modest gate and into the town of Puerto Ayora, part of the three percent of Galápagos that is technically not part of the National Park. One friend calls the mile walk along the main road the “most expensive mile in Galápagos”, and many wallets and credit cards felt the truth of the statement by the time we met for our trip into the highlands. Holiday season is on approach, and here there is something to be had for everyone.
Lunch was eaten surrounded by lush green trees and bushes, cultivated bougainvillea and hibiscus; citrus, banana and papaya trees close by. Darwin’s finches, Galápagos doves and vermillion flycatchers joined pit craters and Scalesia forest sightings at the top of the volcanic island under the clouds. Giant tortoises wandered green spaces, their heads and necks covered with water ferns, and for a few short hours we were part of an on-going story which has played out virtually unchanged for millennia.
We rode the gentle swells into Academy Bay early this morning. Rounding the southern edge of Santa Cruz Island it was startling to see houses, buildings, boats and a few communications towers clustered along the shores of this small indented bay, quite a contrast to the wild and rugged coastlines of the past few days. Puerto Ayora has around 11,000 inhabitants, and is the hub of business, tourism and science here in the archipelago. We spent the morning focused on tortoises: big ones, small ones, saddle-backed and domed, unknown and famous, we saw them all. The Charles Darwin Research Station lies on the easternmost edge of town, within property actually part of the Galápagos National Park. A few hundred meters along a paved road leads one out a modest gate and into the town of Puerto Ayora, part of the three percent of Galápagos that is technically not part of the National Park. One friend calls the mile walk along the main road the “most expensive mile in Galápagos”, and many wallets and credit cards felt the truth of the statement by the time we met for our trip into the highlands. Holiday season is on approach, and here there is something to be had for everyone.
Lunch was eaten surrounded by lush green trees and bushes, cultivated bougainvillea and hibiscus; citrus, banana and papaya trees close by. Darwin’s finches, Galápagos doves and vermillion flycatchers joined pit craters and Scalesia forest sightings at the top of the volcanic island under the clouds. Giant tortoises wandered green spaces, their heads and necks covered with water ferns, and for a few short hours we were part of an on-going story which has played out virtually unchanged for millennia.
