We arrived to the largest town in the Galapagos archipelago, called Puero Ayora. After a dry landing we visited the breeding center of the Galapagos National Park Service. As we passed by the facilities of the Charles Darwin Foundation, we learned about projects that are currently going on to help the endemic species in the archipelago. In the breeding center we saw species of tortoises form different islands, different ages and different population statuses. One of the main objectives within these facilities is to incubate tortoise’s eggs in captivity and repatriate them back to their home islands once they have reached a safe age, to minimize the effect the introduced animals have on them. We did see an famous and successful character of the breeding center, “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.
After a 25 minute bus trip, we visited a small local hacienda where we learned about the processes of sugar cane juice transformation into sugar, together with the amazing homemade coffee production. Some of us decide to bike a couple of miles on a paved road with farms and coffee plantations along the side of the road. 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 basaltic islands like the Galapagos. This interesting feature was around 250,000 years old, geologically very young.
After visiting the giants in the wild and spending a great day with them, we headed back to the National Geographic Islander to enjoy the entertainment provided by local musicians and dancers.
