Today we dropped anchor at Academy Bay. We were back to civilization. My home island, Santa Cruz, holds the largest population in the Galapagos Archipelago; more than 20,000 people live here nowadays. After breakfast everyone on board the National Geographic Endeavour was ready for an amazing day, because we can use the facilities that an inhabited island offers such as roads, buses and shops.
After a short bus ride we walked towards the “Fausto Llerena Giant tortoises Breeding Center”. This is the most successful program run by the Galapagos National Park and started back in 1965 by the Charles Darwin Research Station, its main goal is to restore the population of giant tortoises on different islands in the Galapagos by breeding and rearing tortoises in captivity. Our guests were delighted with the sight of saddle back tortoises, the famous “Diego” from the island of Española and the domed shell tortoises. It was a great opportunity to explain the importance of conservation and what the Galapagos National Park Service together with the Charles Darwin Research Station is doing in order to achieve it.
After the visit at the Breeding Center, our guests enjoyed some free time in Puerto Ayora town and could get immersed in the local environment. It is a great place to buy souvenirs, get picturesque captions mainly at the fishermen market, where brown pelicans and Galapagos sea lions compete for a rest of a fish that has been cleaned, just amazing!
In our meeting point, we headed towards the Highlands of Santa Cruz. A group of our guests went to the local school that is supported by Lindblad-National Geographic Fund, many guests decided to exercise and went mountain biking towards “El Trapiche” Farm. Our guests learned here how sugar cane is turned into almost everything: juice, brown sugar, molasses and moonshine. Coffee is also an important product they harvest. It was interesting to see how all these products were processed back in the days, when electricity was not available at that time in the Galapagos.
We had a great meal at a local restaurant, “Aquelarre”, located in the highlands surrounded by green lush vegetation and a beautiful garden. From here we headed towards the giant tortoises natural reserve, it is incredible to see these giants in their natural habitat. The weather was great today.
After the excursion, we went to the pier, had time once again to enjoy the cozy town and by 6 p.m. we brought everybody back on board. We invited a local group of musicians, Eco Arte group, who delighted our guests and brought the young explorers in their feet. It was a different day, an awesome day, Galapagos is magic!
