We had a wonderfully calm navigation during the wee hours of the morning and found ourselves anchored by dawn in Academy Bay, off Santa Cruz Island. The town of Puerto Ayora is home for 20,000 Ecuadorian and International inhabitants and is also the headquarters of both the Galapagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station. This morning, after a delicious breakfast of eggs benedict, we disembarked on the main town dock and took buses to the entrance to the Park and Station. We walked a half mile to visit the giant tortoise captive breeding center. Here we saw dozens of cute baby tortoises and learned of the successful repatriation of the endangered species of tortoises to the islands of their origin. Eggs are incubated here, and the hatchlings are cared for until they are old enough to be returned to the wild. We saw Super Diego – a very amorous male tortoise that was returned to Galapagos from the San Diego Zoo in the mid 70’s when the scientists realized that he was from the nearly extinct population of Española tortoises. From a low of 15 adult Española tortoises we now have over 2000 tortoises in the wild on that island again!
We walked through town, shopping in the numerous colorful boutiques, and enjoyed the fish market where pelicans and a fat sea lion grabbed the fish scraps and posed for our cameras. Those who wanted to venture out on bikes left The Rock café first with naturalist Benjamin and pedaled three miles along a hilly road where we all soon gathered at El Trapiche sugar cane and coffee farm. We learned how this family-run farm processes their coffee and sugar cane and we sampled their products. Ripe bananas hanging on the stem were a big hit as were the strong cane liquor and sweet cane juice which appealed to the various age groups among us.
Back on the buses we headed west and higher up the island to a lunch spot where we enjoyed grilled chicken at a quaint restaurant nestled among the lush green highland vegetation. Then we went in search of tortoises in the wild. We found many of these iconic reptiles lumbering in the open fields, soaking in a pool of water and grazing in the lush grasses. We explored a lava tube and then returned to Puerto Ayora for a bit of additional shopping or went straight back to the ship to enjoy a siesta.
In the evening a folkloric music and dance group – EcoArte – made up of two middle school teachers and their students entertained us with songs and dance. Or rather, I think we entertained them with our enthusiastic dancing and laughter! In any case it was a fun and merry party and a wonderful way to end yet another full and interesting day in the magical Islas Encantadas!
