We anchored off the coast of the largest town in the archipelago, known as Puerto Ayora. After breakfast, we had a dry landing and headed to visit the breeding center of the Galapagos National Park. We also visited the facilities of the Charles Darwin Foundation, and learned about the many projects that are currently going on within the Galapagos archipelago. In the breeding center we saw species of tortoises form different islands and from different ages. One of the main objectives here is to incubate the tortoise’s eggs in captivity and repatriate them back to their home islands once they have reached a safe age. We did see an interesting character in the breeding center and that was “Super Diego,” a giant tortoise form Espanola Island who came from the San Diego Zoo to help save its species from extinction driven by human predation.
In the afternoon we visited a small local hacienda where we learned about the sugar cane juice’s transformation into sugar, alcohol, and syrup, together with the amazing homemade coffee production. Some of us decided to bike a couple of miles to this place. It’s great exercise to bike along the farmlands that cattle and giant tortoises have claimed as their territory.
After lunch, we went to visit the giant tortoises in the wild. Many very old male tortoises were spotted, some mating on the side of the road, while others were feeding or cooling off in the rain water ponds. This was basically tortoise heaven, where the greenery keeps these giants happy and coming back every season. We also entered a double-decker lava tube; a large geological feature very common in volcanic islands like the Galapagos.
Today was the day of the giants in the Galapagos, from giant tortoises to giant daisy trees together in a magical paradise known as “the enchanted islands.”
