Santa Cruz received us with a sky covered by clouds and mist. The National Geographic Endeavour dropped anchor at Academy Bay.
Today we visited the breeding center for giant tortoises located next to the Charles Darwin Research Station. This center has been restoring the population of tortoises during the last half century. So we walked to the corrals where the adult individuals re held in captivity so they provide us with eggs, and in return we release a couple hundred babies every year.
Later we went to the town of Santa Cruz called Puerto Ayora. This is the economical heat of the islands and home to most of the inhabitants in the Archipelago. Apart from all the shopping done here, we stopped by the fishermen’s market, to see what they brought from today’s catch.
Then we took buses to visit a school that is trying to improve the quality of education in the islands and prepare the future leaders of the province. Some of us visited a sugar cane and coffee plantation instead.
At the end of the day we had a fantastic lunch in the highlands of Santa Cruz.
To finish the day we took the buses a last time to go to a private land where they allowed us to enter and see Giant tortoises in the wild.
The day was so full of activities that by the end we were tired enough to prepare for the next day of expedition.
